(Washington) Twenty American senators, Republicans and Democrats, announced Sunday an agreement on several provisions to better regulate the use of firearms, measures at least after recent killings that shocked the United States.
Posted at 11:51 a.m.
Updated at 12:36 p.m.
These measures, likely to obtain a supermajority in the Senate, include an encouragement for states to withdraw weapons from those deemed dangerous as well as others aimed at mental health and safety in schools, but do not include the essential reforms demanded by the Democrats and Joe Biden.
However, the President of the United States immediately hailed the “insufficient but “significant progress”, estimating in a press release that it would be “the most significant text on gun control to be voted on in Congress for years. decades”.
The presence of ten Republican senators among the signatories of the press release announcing this compromise suggests that such a text has a real chance of passing the Senate if all 50 elected Democrats are in favor of it. A qualified majority of 60 votes is required for such a bill to be adopted, which has so far blocked any major progress towards better regulation of firearms, due to opposition from the Conservatives.
A proposal of “common sense”
The massacre in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 21 people, including 19 children, had triggered several parliamentary initiatives, including that of this group of senators, led by Democrat Chris Murphy, who has been working discreetly in recent days in order to find an agreement that can be approved by Congress.
The twenty senators, ten Republicans and ten Democrats, agreed to “a common-sense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the danger of violence across the country,” the joint statement read.
Their proposals also include stronger criminal and psychological background checks for gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21 as well as federal funding for various mental health programs.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans took to the streets in many cities across the country, including the capital Washington, to “stop these massacres” and demand that Congress pass reforms to better restrict access to weapons. fire.
Christ Murphy underlined on Twitter the historic nature of the agreement, the first of its kind in 30 years.
The House of Representatives had voted on Wednesday a different text with stronger measures, including the ban on the sale of semi-automatic rifles to those under 21 and that of large capacity magazines, but it has almost no chance of go to the Senate.