(The Center Square) President Joe Biden signed bipartisan gun control legislation meant to take guns out of the hands of individuals deemed a threat, though critics say that’s a violation of due process rights.
The measure also imposes more thorough background checks on buyers under the age of 21, The Center Square reported.
It does not include a ban on AR-15-style weapons or limit the number of bullets in magazines.
“While this bill doesn’t do everything I want, it does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives,” Biden said when signing the measure Saturday. “Today, we say more than ‘enough.’ We say more than enough.
“This time, when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential.”
The U.S. House passed the the Safer Communities Act Friday by a vote of 234-193 after the Senate passed it Thursday night by a vote of 65-33.
The bill was proposed and passed in response to a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, when police reportedly stood by as 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed. Although an investigation is ongoing, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw recently said the Uvalde’s police response “was an abject failure” and they could have stopped the shooter within three minutes if they had done their jobs.
“From Columbine to Sandy Hook to Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, El Paso, Atlanta, Buffalo, Uvalde and for the shootings that happen every day in the streets, how many times have you heard that, ‘just do something, for God’s sake just do something’?” Biden said. “Today, we did.”
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, led a bipartisan group in the Senate to push through the gun control bill, arguing it “will save lives while placing no new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.”
But Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who introduced a different bill, the Safe Kids, Safe Schools, Safe Communities Act, said what Cornyn supported won’t stop violent crime or make schools safer, but will restrict law-abiding Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
A solution to actually improve school safety would have been to pass his bill, Cruz said, which “goes after criminals and supports law enforcement while protecting the Second Amendment.”
