The US Senate has passed a bill backed by elected officials from both major parties that is supposed to tackle the wave of gun violence plaguing the United States, with restrictions on access to firearms and billions of dollars to fund mental health and safety in schools.
The project, adopted by 65 votes against 33 in the Upper House and which has every chance of being validated in the House of Representatives on Friday, remains far below the measures demanded by President Joe Biden, but it nevertheless constitutes a first for decades and a breakthrough for gun control advocates.
This vote comes just a few hours after the invalidation by the Supreme Court of the United States – whose majority of judges are conservative – of the “restrictions” on the carrying of weapons provided for by a law of the State of New York.
Since 1913, this law has limited the issuance of concealed weapons permits to people who have reason to believe that they may have to defend themselves, for example because of their profession or threats against them.
This decision by the highest US court was announced as the United States faces a spike in crime in major cities and a horrifying series of mass killings, including two in May, in Buffalo (10 dead). African-Americans) and at a school in Texas (21 killed, including 19 children).
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