Washington - President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades. The bipartisan gun safety bill that seemed unimaginable was signed into a law today, the first major federal gun reform in three decades, days after the Supreme Court expanded gun rights.
“Time is of the essence. Lives will be saved,” he said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Citing the families of shooting victims he has met, the president said, “Their message to us was, ‘Do something.’ How many times did we hear that? ‘Just do something. For God’s sake, just do something.’ Today we did.”
The House on Friday passed the bill by 234-193, including 14 Republicans voting with Democrats, following Senate passage Thursday, and Biden acted just before leaving Washington for two summits in Europe.
“Today we say, ‘More than enough,’” Biden said. “It’s time, when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential.”
The president called it “a historic achievement.”
In his remarks Saturday, the President announced he'd host members of Congress who supported the landmark gun safety legislation at a White House event on July 11, following his return from Europe, to celebrate the new law with the families of gun violence victims.
The package represents the most significant new federal legislation to address gun violence since the expired 10-year assault weapons ban of 1994 -- though it fails to ban any weapons and falls far short of what Biden and his party had advocated for, and polls show most Americans want to see.
The new legislation includes provisions to help states keep guns out of the hands of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others and blocks gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners. It does not ban sales of assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines.
The law does take some steps on background checks by allowing access, for the first time, to information on significant crimes committed by juveniles. It also cracks down on gun sales to purchasers convicted of domestic violence, closing years-old loophole in domestic violence law -- the "boyfriend loophole".
It provides new federal funding to states that administer "red flag" laws intended to remove guns from people deemed dangerous to themselves and others.
Most of its $13 billion cost will help bolster mental health programs and aid schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, and elsewhere in mass shootings.
It includes $750 million to help states implement and run crisis intervention programs. The money can be used to implement and manage red flag programs -- which through court orders can temporarily prevent individuals in crisis from accessing firearms -- and for other crisis intervention programs like mental health courts, drug courts and veterans courts.
The bill goes after individuals who sell guns as primary sources of income but have previously evaded registering as federally licensed firearms dealers.
"Nothing is going to fill that void in their hearts. But they led the way so other families will not have the experience and the pain and trauma they've had to live through."
"I especially want to thank the families that Jill and I have (met), many of whom we sat with for hours on end, across the country. There's so many we've gotten to know who've lost their soul to an epidemic of gun violence. They've lost their child, their husband, their wife," Biden said.
Just before signing the bill, Biden praised the families of gun violence victims with whom he had met. He said their activism in the face of loss was a difference-maker.
-CNN/AP/Reuters