Senators have reached consensus on a bipartisan gun safety framework consisting of stronger background checks, funding for mental health and grants for state gun control laws allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize privately-held firearms if it is felt that a person poses a danger to themselves or others, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, one of the bill's authors, has announced.
"We have a deal. Today a bipartisan group of 20 Senators (10 Democrats and 10 Republicans) is announcing a breakthrough agreement on gun violence - the first in 30 years - that will save lives," Murphy wrote in a multi-part Twitter thread.
"Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can't purchase weapons. Most importantly, our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. We look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing our commonsense proposal into law," a joint statement shared by Murphy added.
The agreement marks a compromise between sweeping gun control measures proposed by House Democrats earlier this month, including a ban on assault weapons, and the position traditionally held by Republicans, which is to defend Second Amendment rights.
Along with Murphy, lawmakers involved in the compromise deal include Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
President Biden hailed the proposed deal later Sunday.
"Obviously, it does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades," Biden was quoted as saying in a White House press release.
The president thanked senators for their "tireless work" to produce the proposal, and said that with the sign of bipartisan support, "there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House" to prevent any more children from being killed in America.
Sources speaking to Axios expressed confidence that the framework's initiators would find the necessary 60 votes for the legislation to pass the Senate. With support from the president, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is also expected to easily pass the measure, unless they hold it up in favour of a more maximalist proposal.
The Congressional push for new gun control measures comes in the wake of back-to-back shootings in Buffalo, New York on 14 May and Uvalde, Texas on 24 May left 32 people dead. The Uvalde shooting occurred at the Robb Elementary School, with a mentally unstable 18-year-old killing nineteen students ages 9-11 and two teachers, and injuring eighteen others.
The United States suffers one of the highest rates of gun crime in the world, ranking alongside countries like Colombia, Uruguay and Mexico in global standings. The country has experienced 22 mass shootings (defined as those in which three people or more have been killed) so far in 2022.