Senators Reach Framework for Legislation Addressing Gun Violence

Senate negotiators said Sunday they reached a bipartisan framework on measures intended to limit some access to firearms, paving the way for the broadest federal legislation on guns in decades.

The proposal, after weeks of push and pull in the wake of mass shootings last month at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket and a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, is narrower than what many Democrats had sought. It aims to go after illegal sales of guns and to fund mental-health programs and school security. It also provides incentives for states to implement and maintain so-called red-flag laws and includes juvenile records in background checks for people buying guns who are under 21 years of age.

The legislation wouldn’t ban any weapons or raise the age to buy assault-style weapons to 21 from 18, which was the age of the gunmen in both Buffalo and Uvalde.

The bipartisan framework, which will test Republicans’ opposition to legislation seen as limiting gun rights, has the support of 10 GOP senators, enough to pass a final bill in the Senate. House Democratic leaders have pledged to support the Senate’s deal, and President Biden said Sunday he would sign the legislation into law.