U.S. Senate group reaches bipartisan deal on gun reform

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has reached a deal on a "common-sense" gun control package that focuses on mental health, school safety and red-flag laws but steers clear of an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and raising the minimum age to purchase a semiautomatic gun, all sought by the Biden administration.

The framework, announced by a group of 20 senators on Sunday, less than three weeks after 19 children and 2 teachers were killed in a Texas school shooting, calls for increasing funding to states for school security, expanding mental health programs, and providing states with financial incentives to enact red-flag laws like those in New York aimed at preventing at-risk individuals from purchasing guns.

The deal also calls for narrowly expanding background checks to allow gun vendors access to the juvenile records of gun purchasers under the age of 21, and would update the national criminal background check system used by gun vendors to include “convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders.” 

“Today, we are announcing a common-sense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe and reduce the threat of violence across our country,” the group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers said in a statement. “Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.”

The proposal is only a framework and the group must iron out the details of the bill before a vote by the full Senate, but the bipartisan panel appears to have cleared one key hurdle by getting 10 GOP senators to endorse the framework. If the 10 Republicans do not change their position, their 10 votes would allow the legislation to move forward for a vote.

Once senators finalize the text of their proposal and the body passes the bill of reforms, the package would then be picked up by the House for a vote. Senate Democrats are eyeing a floor vote this month, with the hope of passing legislation in both chambers and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign by the time Congress breaks for recess in August.

Biden in a statement called the deal a move in the “right direction” despite the framework avoiding key provisions he wanted, including a revival of the federal assault weapons ban that was in place from 1994 to 2004, raising the minimum age to purchase a semiautomatic gun from 18 to 21, and universal background checks on all gun purchases.

“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 said. “With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House. Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who had pressed the group to work quickly following May mass shootings at a Buffalo supermarket and a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, said once the text of the legislation is finished, he “will put this bill on the floor as soon as possible so that the Senate can act quickly to advance gun-safety legislation.”

“Today’s announcement of a bipartisan gun-safety framework is a good first step to ending the persistent inaction to the gun violence epidemic that has plagued our country and terrorized our children for far too long,” Schumer said in a statement.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who had been tapped by Schumer to lead the negotiations, had repeatedly said the group was working to reach an agreement that would garner enough GOP crossover votes to pass in the evenly split Senate, where 60 votes are needed to move legislation forward. 

Murphy, on Twitter, thanked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was the lead Republican negotiator on the package.

“The proposals contained in this package are real and, if enacted, they will save lives,” Murphy said.

Cornyn, in a statement, said: “the tragedies in Uvalde and elsewhere cried out for action."

He defended his support for the compromise legislation, asserting that “it will not infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

“This agreement will provide schools the resources they need to enhance security and keep our children safe,” Cornyn said. “It will invest in mental health programs to support communities and schools.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who in the past has blocked gun control measures from coming before the Senate for a floor vote, offered a more supportive take in a statement on Sunday.

He said he hoped the ongoing discussions “yield a bipartisan product that makes significant headway on key issues like mental health and school safety, respects the Second Amendment, earns broad support in the Senate, and makes a difference for our country.”

Schumer and Murphy, who led previous gun reform negotiations after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, have been trying to avoid the fate of past negotiations that collapsed after public outrage and grief faded following other high-profile mass shootings.

In trying to reach a compromise deal that at least 10 Republican senators would support, Democrats on the panel abandoned some of the demands long sought by gun control advocates, including the provisions pushed for by Biden.

The narrowly crafted Senate proposal released Sunday also avoids some of the more sweeping changes passed by the House Democratic majority last week. The package passed by the House, which is unlikely to get adopted in the Senate, would raise the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21 and ban the sale of large-capacity magazines. The House package also implements a federal red-flag law, compared to the Senate push to incentivize states to enact their own red-flag laws.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement, said: “While more is needed, this package will take steps to save lives.”

Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested House Democrats would continue to push for the more sweeping proposals they passed last week.

“As we move forward on this bipartisan framework, we are continuing to fight for more life-saving measures: including universal background checks, banning high-capacity magazines and raising the age to buy assault weapons, which must also become law," she said.
The National Rifle Association, which has long fought against gun control measures, in a statement stopped short of weighing in on the Senate proposal, stating that the pro-gun group “does not take positions on ‘frameworks.' We will make our position known when the full text of the bill is available for review.”

The 10 Republican senators who have currently signed on to the deal include Cornyn and Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

The Democrats who co-signed the deal include Murphy and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Coons of Delaware, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Independent Angus King of Maine who caucuses with Democrats and, Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

With Tom Brune

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.