Getting sensible gun reform has long been thought to be all but impossible. Yet on June 12th ten Democrats and ten Republicans reached an agreement designed to curb gun violence. If passed into law, it could be the most significant reform in three decades. “This is not window dressing,” Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut who co-led the negotiations, told “The Economist Asks” podcast. “This isn’t just checking a box.”
Some reformers are disappointed not to see a ban on assault weapons—the sort used in recent mass-shootings in Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist killed African-Americans in a supermarket, and in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers. The text of the package is still being written, but it seems the deal includes several measures applauded by advocates of gun control, while at the same time appealing to those worried about preserving the constitutional right to bear arms.
The agreement envisages badly needed funding for mental health and school safety. It would give money to help states pass and implement red-flag laws, which take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. The agreed framework also closes the “boyfriend loophole”, so that convicted domestic abusers cannot buy a gun—according to Everytown, a gun-reform group, 70 women on average are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month. And it includes what would be the first federal law against gun-trafficking and “straw purchasing” (buying a gun on behalf of someone prohibited from possessing one). In theory, that could help stop the illegal flow of guns into cities.
Democrats, including President Joe Biden, had hoped the legal age to buy certain weapons would be increased from 18 to 21. Republicans, hesitant to do so, instead made it harder for young people to acquire guns, by enhancing background checks, including sharing juvenile records.
The senators said that “our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.” That second part is why change was never going to be sweeping. John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas who co-led the negotiations, has framed it as a mental-health bill rather than a gun one. This presumably is how he intends to get Republicans to vote for it. Having ten Republicans, plus Mitch McConnell, their Senate leader, who said on June 14th that he supported the framework, bodes well for its passage in the Senate. Sixty of the 100 Senate votes are needed to overcome a filibuster.
What was different this time? “I just think there was something very emotionally cataclysmic about Buffalo and Uvalde happening together at the same time,” says Mr Murphy, who has been fighting for gun reform since 2012, when 20 children were killed in Sandy Hook primary school. In addition, he points out, a decade ago the anti-gun-violence movement did not exist. Now it has thousands of activists.
Mr Murphy is no stranger to failed bills. “Obviously, I know everything could fall apart,” he says. But he is confident it will not. “We have a much greater chance of getting this done than failing.” Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has said the legislation will be ready for a vote within days.
Speed is of the essence. According to Brady, a gun-control group, on an average day in America more than 320 people are shot. “My guess”, says Mr Murphy, “is that this is going to stop thousands of homicides and suicides, not just one or two.”
