Gun deal in Senate moves closer to reality after key snags resolved
Source: Washington Post
A tentative deal in the Senate that would toughen federal gun laws and provide billions of dollars in new money to prevent future mass shootings moved closer to reality Tuesday after negotiators settled key disagreements that had delayed the drafting of a bill, putting it on a glide path to be passed into law by the end of the month. The breakthrough came more than a week after 20 senators — 10 from each party — signed on to a framework agreement that coupled modest new gun restrictions with as much as $20 billion of new federal funding for mental health programs and school security upgrades.
While agreement from 10 Republican senators on a deal in principle was a clear breakthrough, signaling there could be enough GOP support to beat a Senate filibuster, it did not guarantee that the negotiators would succeed in translating those elements into final text. But with the key disputes resolved, people involved in the negotiations said text of the bill is set to be released as soon as Tuesday afternoon, with an initial Senate procedural vote coming just hours afterward.
If passed, the bill would enact the most significant new gun restrictions since the 1990s, though it falls well short of the broader gun-control measures that President Biden and other Democrats have called for, such as a new assault weapons ban or restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines. One sticking point resolved over the weekend concerned the “boyfriend loophole” — a gap in current federal law that prevents domestic violence offenders from purchasing firearms if their victims were either their spouses or partners with whom they had lived or had children.
The framework proposed expanding that class to include offenders who have been in a “continuing relationship of a romantic or intimate nature” with their victims. Defining precisely what constitutes such a relationship, however, was challenging, as was addressing GOP desires to create a process allowing offenders to have their gun rights restored. According to draft text of the provision obtained by The Washington Post, the bill would bar a misdemeanor domestic violence offender who has a "current or recent former dating relationship with the victim” from owning or buying a gun.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/21/senate-gun-deal/
= new reply since forum marked as read
