A modest but wide-ranging gun violence measure was approved by the U.S. House on Friday, sending the measure to President Joe Biden.
The Democratic-led chamber passed the package a day after the Senate approved it by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
The legislation was crafted by senators of both parties following public revulsion over last month’s mass shootings in New York and Texas, but the vote in the far more ideological House was expected to fall more sharply along party lines.
The measure would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and many other infamous massacres.
The bipartisan bill now goes to the House.
The election-year bill was a direct result of the slaying of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, exactly one month ago, and the killing of 10 Black shoppers days earlier in Buffalo, New York.
Lawmakers returned from their districts after those shootings saying constituents were demanding congressional action, a vehemence many felt could not be ignored.
This is a developing story
