House Sends First Major Gun Safety Bill in Decades to Biden, Who Intends to Sign it

The House on Friday passed the most significant gun control legislation in nearly three decades, sending a modest set of gun safety measures to President Joe Biden’s desk on a vote that was mostly along party lines.

The bill, which passed on a 234-to-193 vote, would enhance background checks for younger buyers and fund a flurry of new mental health programs, though it falls well short of the more sweeping gun-control measures that Biden has called for. Still, the White House released a statement indicating that the President would sign the bill, calling it “one of the most significant steps Congress has taken to reduce gun violence in decades.”

n the House, 14 Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting the bill. The vote comes exactly a month after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. That massacre occurred just 10 days after a racially-motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket. This year, there have already been 279 mass shootings, defined as incidents where four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Shortly before Friday’s vote, a group of roughly 30 House Democrats gathered on the Capitol steps with other gun control advocates. They sang “God Bless America” while holding photos of people lost to gun violence. “Our success today will never be the end of this fight, but it is a beginning,” Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat from Georgia, said as family members affected by gun violence listened. “This bill doesn’t answer all of our prayers, but this is hope.”

https://time.com/6190977/house-passes-gun-safety-bill-biden/