Five months before the mid-term elections, the announcement is an improbable political miracle. After several weeks of negotiations, a group of twenty Republican and Democratic senators have agreed on increased gun control measures. It is, according to a press release, Sunday, June 12, a “common sense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep schools safe, and reduce violence nationwide.” This agreement in principle, which will still have to be put to the vote, is the fruit of an effort led by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (Connecticut) and his Republican colleague from Texas, John Cornyn. President Joe Biden immediately welcomed this breakthrough, the most important ” for decades ” in Congress.
The recent killings, in May, in a Buffalo supermarket and in the Texas school of Uvalde have put this nagging question of firearms back in the heart of the news. Those elected to Congress find themselves under strong pressure from public opinion to finally act. The agreement reached is made up of small steps, not ruptures, the only condition for ten Republicans to accept it and for the second amendment to the Constitution to remain intact in their eyes, in its broadest interpretation.
It will still have to be translated into legislative texts, in the House and then in the Senate, before it reaches Joe Biden’s desk for signature. Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer hopes to wrap up the parliamentary process before the July 4 summer break. “Will this project do all that is necessary to end the epidemic of gun violence in our nation? No. But it is real, significant progress. And he breaks a blockage of thirty years “, pointed out Chris Murphy on Twitter.
An unexpected step forward
The document aims both to strengthen the mental health sector and security measures in schools, through federal funding, and to clarify the definition of an arms seller, to avoid the excessive permissiveness of certain . At this stage, contrary to the wishes of the Democrats, the minimum age required to buy weapons of war, like the famous AR-15, would not be raised from 18 to 21 years. As for their ban, it is not an option for the Republicans. These weapons had been banned from 1993, before the legislation expired in 2004. But the scale of the measures envisaged still represents an unexpected step forward, given the fierce polarization that paralyzes Congress.
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