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Senator Chuck Schumer, Senate Leader, is giving a new opportunity to negotiate bills that would increase arms control in Congress, after the massacre that occurred during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where they died 19 children and two teachers and several people were injured.
Several Republican senators are responding to Chris Murphy’s call for new bipartisan talks.
Betting on a Senate that votes in favor of an arms control agreement in response to the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a primary school of Texas, just five months before the midterm elections, is a long shot.
But there is enough will among Senate Democrats to at least try instead of forcing votes that will surely fail by putting Republicans on the defensive.
So rather than mention background check legislation passed by the House that Republicans and possibly a Democrat or two would block, Schumer is hopeful that the latest mass shooting finally allows reach a bipartisan agreement to vote in favor of a Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.
Schumer announced yesterday in a statement: “I just took the next step in moving toward a vote this week on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. Democrats are working to pass this bill to combat domestic terrorism. We will see if the Senate Republicans are with us or with the MAGA Republicans.”
Still, Schumer promised later on Wednesday that at some point “let’s vote on gun legislation”, asking Republicans to introduce a bill against domestic terrorism and amend it. “We need real solutions. We will vote on gun legislation starting with the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act,” he announced on Twitter.
Any gun control bill it has little chance of being approved in the Senate, where Republicans control half of the votes. Any bipartisan deal would require at least 10 more Republican votes (60 in total) and many Republican senators are already considering that the balance in Congress may change in November.
The shooting in Uvalde renewed the calls to impose measures that control the sale of weapons, since the one made by President Joe Biden again on Wednesday, to the demands of many Americans to control the sale of weapons and prevent the increase in mass shootings in the country.
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