A sensible compromise
THE GUN safety bill that President Joe Biden signed into law Saturday is a welcome if measured improvement in public safety and a vivid reminder of what Washington can accomplish when the public good prevails over partisan politics. The deal was too little for many Democrats and too much for most Republicans, but that’s what made the compromise possible, ending nearly three decades of federal inaction on gun violence.
The Democratic-led House approved the legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, only one day after the Senate approved the bill by a bipartisan 6533 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in support. Supporters were right to use the public outcry over the recent mass shootings in New York and Texas as an impetus to act.
The measure provides funding incentives for states to adopt so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate the weapons of those deemed a threat to themselves or others. (Florida enacted a red flag law after the mass school shooting in Parkland in 2018.) For the first time, people convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” that’s often a factor in gun-related tragedies.
The law makes the juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to 10 days to give federal and local officials time for a thorough search. The measure expands the use of background checks through federally licensed gun dealers, toughens penalties for gun trafficking and provides billions of dollars for community and school mental health programs and campus safety initiatives.
The compromise shows that Congress can succeed when both parties put the public’s interest first. In that sense, it’s disappointing that Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, chose here to be part of the problem instead of the solution.
But this was a victory nonetheless for public safety, for civic activism and for the cause of bipartisan negotiation.