US gun control

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Democrats controlled Congress for two years. What did they achieve?

      by

      AnalysisDemocrats controlled Congress for two years. What did they achieve?Lauren Gambino From same-sex marriage protections to veterans’ aid, Joe Biden’s party used its thin majority to deliver many campaign promisesIn January, Democrats will lose their unified control of Capitol Hill, ending a remarkable legislative streak that saw the party deliver on many of their campaign promises.Biden’s climate bill victory was hard won. Now, the real battle startsRead moreWhile Joe Biden and his party did not accomplish everything they set out to do, Democrats in Congress spent the last two years marshalling their thin majorities to pass consequential legislation that touches nearly every aspect of American life from water quality to marriage equality. Some of the most notable measures even earned Republican support.As a new era of divided government dawns in Washington, with Republicans set to take control of the House on 3 January, here’s a look at what Democrats accomplished during the 117th Congress.American Rescue Plan ActSeven weeks into his presidency, Biden signed into law a $1.9tn economic stimulus plan designed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and begin repairing the nation’s frayed social safety net. The bill, passed by Democrats on a party-line vote, sent $1,400 stimulus checks to tens of millions of Americans and temporarily extended unemployment benefits.It included billions in funding to speed up vaccination distribution and school reopenings and additional money to help state and local governments weather the pandemic-induced economic downturn. The legislation also temporarily increased the annual Child Tax Credit, a policy experts say helped halve child poverty in America before it ended.The uphill battle to resurrect the US child tax credit that lifted millions from poverty Read moreIn the months that followed, a debate flared over the legislation’s economic impact. Many economists credited the large-scale infusion of cash with spurring a rapid economic recovery while others argued that the plan, at least to some extent, contributed to inflation.Establish Juneteenth as a federal holidayIn June 2021, Congress passed legislation to make Juneteenth, or 19 June, a federal holiday.Juneteenth marks the events of 19 June 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom, more than two months after the Confederacy surrendered. Calls grew to commemorate Juneteenth following nationwide social justice protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police.Create a House committee to investigate the Capitol attackFormally titled the House select committee to investigate the January 6th attack, the nine-member panel was charged with investigating the events that led to the most grievous assault on the US Capitol in more than 200 years.Democrats preferred a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, similar to the one Congress established in the aftermath of 9/11. But Republicans stonewalled those efforts and in the end the House voted to create a select committee composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both of whom have been ostracized by their party for criticizing Trump.The committee held a summer of blockbuster public hearings that sought to chronicle what it charged to be a coordinated plot, instigated by Donald Trump, to subvert a free and fair election. With shocking testimony and slick video reels, the committee crafted a devastating portrait of a president willing to do anything to remain in power.The panel issued the findings of its 18-month inquiry in a report released in late December, the result of more than 1,000 interviews and hundreds of thousands of documents. They referred Trump to the justice department for violating at least four criminal statutes, as well as his ally, lawyer John Eastman, on a conspiracy charge. Four lawmakers were referred to the House ethics committee, including Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to run for speaker of the House next year.Bipartisan infrastructure lawSeveral presidents tried – and failed – to pass an infrastructure bill. But late last year, Biden signed into law the largest investment in US infrastructure in at least a generation.Far narrower in scope than the $2.3tn plan Biden initially proposed, the sweeping public works package was nevertheless a hard-won, bipartisan victory, with 19 Republican senators voting in favor, including the minority leader, Mitch McConnell.The infrastructure law provided for $550bn in new spending, investing in everything from the nation’s waterways and transit systems to its airports and electric grid. The bill also included funding for electric vehicle charging stations, as well as for zero- and low-emissions buses and ferries.Confirm a supreme court justiceWhen supreme court justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, Biden had an opportunity to make good on his promise to nominate the first Black woman to the supreme court. His choice was Ketanji Brown Jackson.In April, Jackson faced a grueling confirmation hearing before a deeply polarized Senate. She ultimately won approval in a 53-to-47 vote that was met with tears of joy and celebration by Black women and girls across the country. Jackson officially joined the court in late June, just after its controversial decision to overturn Roe v Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion.‘Force to be reckoned with’: Ketanji Brown Jackson shines in first weekRead moreBorn in Washington DC and raised in Miami, Jackson is a graduate of Harvard Law School and previously served as a clerk for her predecessor, Justice Breyer. She is the first public defender to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court.Over the past two years, the Democratic-controlled Senate has confirmed a record-setting number of Biden’s judicial appointments, the overwhelming majority of whom are women and people of color. ​​Gun-control legislationAfter Congress’s failure to act in response to the killing of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, a bipartisan solution to the ever-rising toll of gun violence in America seemed unreachable.But in June, following a spate of horrific mass shootings that included a racist attack on Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, lawmakers finally came together to pass the first major gun-control legislation in a generation.The bill toughens requirements for the youngest gun buyers, keeps firearms out of the hands of more domestic abusers and helps states implement “red flag” laws that make it easier for authorities to temporarily take away weapons from people deemed by a judge to be dangerous. It also includes funding for mental health and violence intervention programs as well as school safety initiatives.Biden said the legislation was a “historic achievement”. Gun control activists also celebrated its passage, but said it was only a first step and much more aggressive action was needed.The Chips and Science ActThe product of more than a year of negotiations between the House and the Senate, the so-called Chips and Science Act was designed to bolster US competitiveness with China by investing in the nation’s industrial and technological might.The sprawling $280bn bill contains more than $52bn to expand the US’s domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry, after pandemic-induced supply chain pressures exposed just how dependent the country was on chips manufactured abroad.The largest chunk of the money will go toward scientific research in areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum computing. It would also create “regional innovation and technology hubs” with the aim of bringing jobs and economic growth to the most distressed parts of the country.The package passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law with great fanfare by the president, who has promoted the legislation at events around the country – and the world.Aid for veterans exposed to toxic burn pitsWith broad bipartisan support, Congress enacted legislation expanding access to healthcare and disability benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service.The law, known as the Pact Act, helps veterans get screened and receive services for possible toxic exposures, such as Agent Orange during the Vietnam war, or toxins from pits used to burn military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also expands the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, removing administrative obstacles for veterans to obtain disability payments.The law was deeply personal for the president, who has suggested that exposure to burn pits in Iraq may have been responsible for the death from cancer of his elder son, Beau.Inflation Reduction ActBiden’s signature domestic achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act was a long-sought legislative pursuit that survived several overhauls and setbacks before finally becoming law in August 2022.‘We’re still struggling’: low unemployment can’t hide impact of low wages and rising inflationRead moreThe version that became law was far narrower than the expansive vision Biden initially outlined, a plan known as Build Back Better. Even so, the climate, healthcare and tax plan was a legacy-defining accomplishment for the president, delivering on many of his party’s long-sought policy ambitions.Taken together, the bill represents America’s largest ever investment in combating climate change. According to the White House, the climate initiatives contained in the plan put the US on track to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. The legislation also includes investments in environmental justice, conservation and resiliency programs.In an effort to reduce soaring healthcare costs, the Inflation Reduction Act allows the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for seniors on Medicare, extend federal health insurance subsidies and caps out-of-pocket costs for insulin at no more than $35 per month for Medicare beneficiaries.The law also imposes new taxes on big corporations, setting a minimum corporate tax of 15% and boosts funding for the Internal Revenue Service in an effort to crack down on tax evasion. It is estimated that the law will reduce the federal budget deficit by about $300bn over 10 years.At the signing ceremony, Biden hailed the measure as “one of the most significant laws in our history”. Now, as many of the law’s provisions begin to take effect, Democrats face the difficult task of explaining its many constituent parts to the public.At midday on New Year’s Eve he tweeted: “Just 12 hours until many of the cost-saving provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act kick in for millions.”Just 12 hours until many of the cost-saving provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act kick in for millions.— President Biden (@POTUS) December 31, 2022
      Protections for same-sex marriageWhen the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the conservative justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect that marriage equality could be next. The threat set in motion an unexpectedly bipartisan scramble on Capitol Hill that resulted in landmark legislation protecting same-sex marriage.House passes landmark legislation protecting same-sex marriageRead moreThe bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, provides a degree of relief to the hundreds of thousands of same-sex married couples in the United States by requiring federal and state governments to recognize lawfully performed unions regardless of sex, race or ethnicity.But should the supreme court overturn Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, the measure does not require states to perform same-sex marriages nor does it prevent them from banning the unions. It also includes a clause exempting religious organizations from any obligation to provide goods, services or accommodations for a celebration of a same-sex marriage.Nevertheless, LGBTQ+ advocates and allies welcomed the legislation as a major step toward protecting a hard-won civil liberty. At a signing ceremony, Biden called the bill a step toward building a nation where “decency, dignity and love are recognized, honored and protected”.Government funding billDays before Christmas, with the threat of a shutdown looming, Congress hastily approved a 4,155-page, $1.7tn spending bill to fund the federal government and its various agencies through the remainder of the 2023 fiscal year. The product of a chaotic round of 11th-hour negotiations, led by two retiring appropriators determined to cement their legacy with one final deal, the funding measure includes more than $858bn in defense spending.Other big-ticket items in the measure included nearly $45bn in aid for Ukraine, a provision banning the use of TikTok on all government devices, a rewrite of the Electoral Count Act that was at the heart of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, $40bn in disaster relief for communities struck by hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other environmental calamities this year.After an agreement was reached, the bill was rushed through both chambers of Congress with unusual speed. It was approved with strong bipartisan support in the Senate but passed on a mostly party-line vote in the House, foreshadowing the brinksmanship to come when Republicans control the chamber next year.Ukraine aidSince the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US has committed more than $100bn in security assistance and humanitarian aid to the country. During a historic visit to Washington last month, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, delivered an address to a join session of Congress in which he personally thanked Americans for their support.In total, Congress has passed four tranches of emergency aid, including most recently, a $45bn package that was notably more than Biden requested. It passed as part of the year-end spending bill.The funds have been used for a range of purposes, much of it military, economic or humanitarian in nature. That includes, for example, sending economic support for Ukrainian refugees as well as for security assistance to help train, equip and provide intelligence support to the Ukrainian military. A significant portion of the funds will be used to replenish stocks of US weapons sent to Ukraine.Aid to Ukraine has so far been approved with overwhelming bipartisan support. But a contingent of far-right House Republicans have threatened to block future aid to Ukraine.Reform the Electoral Count ActIn the wake of the assault on the US Capitol, a bipartisan coalition began working on an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act, the 1887 law that governs how Congress counts presidential electors.Trump and his allies had sought to exploit ambiguities in the 135-year-old law to claim that the then vice-president, Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, could delay the count or even toss out legitimate electoral votes from states that voted for Biden.Pence dismissed the plan as unconstitutional. But the fringe theory flourished among Trump’s supporters, thousands of whom stormed the Capitol on 6 January in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.Under a rewrite of the law, the vice-president’s role in counting electors is defined as purely ceremonial. It also raises the threshold for considering a challenge to a state’s electoral votes, making it harder for lawmakers to interfere in the process. The measure was passed as part of an omnibus spending package, the final major act of a Congress that was sworn in on the eve of the Capitol attack.What Congress didn’t do:The party in power did not accomplish everything it promised. Stymied by the Senate filibuster, Democrats could not rally enough support to weaken the rule and pass their legislative priorities on a party-line vote.Biden promised to reform the police. Why has so little progress been made?Read moreDemocrats failed to codify Roe, after the supreme court ended the constitutional right to an abortion. Despite a streak of mass shootings, they could not find enough support in the Senate to ban assault weapons. A tide of restrictive voter laws went into effect without any response from Congress. Compromise eluded a bipartisan group working on police reform. Despite an 11th-hour push, there was no extension of the Child Tax Credit. And the 117th Congress adjourned without taking action to raise the debt limit, alarming analysts who have warned that Republican brinkmanship over the nation’s borrowing limit could lead to economic calamity.With a divided government, the outlook for major legislative accomplishments is far less likely. Instead, Democrats are bracing for an onslaught of Republican-led investigations into the president, his family and his administration.TopicsBiden administrationUS politicsDemocratsJoe BidenUS Capitol attackKetanji Brown JacksonUS gun controlanalysisReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      First Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost says he’s part of the ‘mass shooting generation’

      by

      First Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost says he’s part of the ‘mass shooting generation’ Maxwell Frost places curbing gun violence at the top of his political agenda, along with addressing the housing crisisMaxwell Frost might not yet have a permanent address in Washington DC, but that hasn’t stopped the hate mail from reaching him. “I got a letter the other day,” he says. “And when I opened it, it just said: ‘Fuck you.’”Frost expected there would be a fair amount of negative reaction after he became the first member of Gen Z to be voted into Congress in last month’s midterm elections.But a heavy campaign focus on gun safety measures has made the 25-year-old Democrat from Orlando, Florida, a marked man. The issue couldn’t be more important to Frost, who calls Gen Z “the mass shooting generation”.‘I’ve been Maced, I’ve been to jail …’ Can 25-year-old Maxwell Frost now be the first Gen Z member of Congress?Read more“It feels like I’ve been through more mass shooting drills than fire drills,” he says.Frost not only came of age with many of the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas 2018 high school shooting, but barnstormed the country with them to advocate for tougher gun controls.Shortly after Frost beat Republican rival Calvin Wimbish by a considerable margin in Florida’s 10th congressional district in November (which includes Frost’s Orlando home town and many of its surrounding theme parks), the gun-saturated country was rocked by seven more mass shootings in as many days.It’s why passing more substantive measures to curb gun violence is at the top of his list of priorities for his first six months in office.“I think we have an opportunity, even in a Republican Congress, to pass legislation that can help get money for community violence intervention programs that help end gun violence before it even happens,” he said.He further insists that any prospective legislation needs to have a mental health component.“Folks with serious mental health issues are often scapegoated as the reason why there’s gun violence,” Frost says. “But as someone who’s been doing the work, when you look into the numbers, having a serious mental health issue doesn’t make you more likely to shoot someone. It actually makes you more likely to be shot.”Frost intends to keep the pressure on both Republicans “who sweep the deaths of children under the rug” and on members of his own party who have been otherwise disinclined to take bold action. “I’d venture to say that gun control is the slowest-moving issue in the federal government that has the most media coverage when something happens,” he says. “I have to be the consistent voice.”You’d be hard-pressed to take in Frost’s sudden emergence on the national scene without harking back to the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AKA AOC) who, at age 29 in 2019, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Like Frost, she boasts Latino heritage, has a working-class background, counts Bernie Sanders as a close mentor and espouses politics that lean left of most fellow Democrats. All of that has made AOC an easy enemy of the right as she joined up with Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and other young liberals since to alloy the informal progressive caucus known as the Squad.Frost would be a natural fit on that team. But he’s not in much hurry to join forces with them or any other groups right now. “You’re gonna have different allies in different battles and I think it’s really important,” says Frost, who still has plenty of love and admiration for the Squad. “I mean, Cori Bush slept on the Capitol steps and as a result of that, people weren’t evicted from their homes. That is a case study in how working-class people and organizers in Congress are good for our country.”Housing will be another focus of Frost’s first 100 days – one that his own situation, a limbo complicated by bad credit and a $174,000 (£143,687) federal salary that he won’t begin drawing until February, has thrust into the spotlight.“We have the worst affordable housing crisis in the country, per capita in central Florida as of a few months ago,” he says.Senator Chris Murphy: ‘victory after victory’ is coming for US gun safetyRead more“We need to do work to increase the power of renters in the marketplace and ensure that renting is actually accessible for people. It’s really hard right now and I know this personally not just from being houseless in DC, but also from being houseless for a month in central Florida and not having enough capital to move into a place.”He also thinks he can make a credible pitch for more funding for the arts, the cherished avocation that initially got him and his high school band to Washington DC to play in Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration parade.“The arts are a huge part of my life,” he says. “I went to [an] arts middle school and high school. I work on music festivals and have my own here in Orlando, and I really believe in the power of the arts – and it’s not equitable for everybody right now.”All the while he intends to use his time in Congress to inspire young people to get involved in the political process, starting with making the federal government more approachable. “I want to do a kids’ day on the Hill,” he says. “I want to do concerts on the Hill – with young artists, so we can get young people super excited. I’ve been doing these blogs about what’s going on on the Hill. So just little things like that. I’m just really focused on stretching what it means to be a member of Congress.”TopicsDemocratsUS gun controlHousingUS politicsFloridaUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Joe Biden says US should have ‘societal guilt’ 10 years after Sandy Hook

      by

      Joe Biden says US should have ‘societal guilt’ 10 years after Sandy HookPresident commemorates 2012 shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed in Newtown, Connecticut Joe Biden said on Wednesday the US should have “societal guilt” over taking too long to address gun violence and the curse of school shootings.Sandy Hook’s tragic legacy on gun safety takes a new turn 10 years onRead moreThe president made the remark in a statement 10 years after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, in which 20 young children and six adults were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, on 14 December 2012.Biden was then vice-president to Barack Obama.On Wednesday, he said: “Our nation watched as the unthinkable happened. Twenty young children with their whole lives ahead of them. Six educators who gave their lives protecting their students. And countless survivors who still carry the wounds of that day.“We should have societal guilt for taking too long to deal with this problem. We have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again. We owe it to the courageous, young survivors and to the families who lost part of their soul 10 years ago to turn their pain into purpose.”Biden heralded progress made on gun policy reform this year – after the shooting of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May.In June, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the first major gun safety bill in nearly 30 years. Among other initiatives, the legislation expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and invested in mental health and violence intervention programs.But Biden acknowledged that more must be done, reiterating his commitment to signing an assault weapons ban, although that proposal has stalled in the Senate.“Enough is enough. Our obligation is clear,” Biden said. “We must eliminate these weapons that have no purpose other than to kill people in large numbers. It is within our power to do this – for the sake of not only the lives of the innocents lost, but for the survivors who still hope.”The Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit, defines a mass shooting as any shooting in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter. On Tuesday, the same source said there had been 628 such shootings in the US this year. The FBI defines mass murder as an incident with four or more people killed. The Gun Violence Archive records 36 mass murders this year.In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, working with Democrats in Congress, Biden and Obama launched a push for meaningful gun reform. It failed.In his own statement on Wednesday, Obama said 14 December 2012 was “the single darkest day of my presidency. The news from Sandy Hook elementary was devastating, a visceral blow, and like so many others, I felt not just sorrow but anger at a world that could allow such things to happen.”Obama also said: “I’ve sensed that slowly, steadily, the tide is turning; that real change is possible. And I feel that way in no small part because of the families of Sandy Hook elementary.”At the Capitol in Washington, the House oversight committee staged a hearing on violence against LGBTQ+ Americans which included testimony from survivors of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs last month, in which five people were killed.In the Senate, the two Democrats from Connecticut, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, delivered remarks to mark a decade since Sandy Hook.Both senators recounted visceral memories from 10 years ago. Both were in the Newtown firehouse as parents learned their children would not come home.“I wish I could tell you that the memory of that day has dimmed,” Blumenthal said. “I wish I could tell you that the knife-like sorrow and pain have subsided, but the fact is it is still raw and real for so many of us in Connecticut.“My mind goes back to the horrors of this day, and I think that reliving it reminds us of the need to honor those 26 lives with action.”Blumenthal and Murphy praised gun safety activists who have spent 10 years working for reform, crediting them with helping make the BSCA a reality this year. Murphy said the law was already proving its impact, citing examples of blocked gun purchases to individuals considered to be at risk of committing violence.“What we have done isn’t enough,” Murphy said in his speech. “It doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility to do more, but it is saving lives.”Murphy has become a champion of gun reform, telling the Guardian earlier this month the movement “is more powerful than the gun lobby” and adding: “I think we are now poised to rack up victory after victory for gun safety.”In a statement released before his speech on Wednesday, the senator said the US had become “a different place” in the decade since Sandy Hook.10 years since Sandy Hook – what’s changed? Politics Weekly America special – podcastRead more“Mostly today, I will think of all the greatness and beauty that was robbed from this world, when these promising lives were cut short.“Mostly, I will spend my day today sending every good thought I have to the family members who lost loved ones that day, to the survivors of the shooting, to the first responders, and to the community of Newtown that will never be the same.“But also today, I will be thankful. I will be thankful for all the good that has resulted from this horror. Those parents, and the community of Newtown, have chosen to rise from that tragedy and build dozens of efforts that have changed lives for the better all over our nation.“Many in Newtown have helped build the modern anti-gun violence movement, that finally this summer achieved the first federal gun safety bill in almost 30 years.”TopicsNewtown shootingJoe BidenUS gun controlUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Senator Chris Murphy: ‘victory after victory’ is coming for US gun control

      by

      Senator Chris Murphy: ‘victory after victory’ is coming for US gun controlA decade after the Sandy Hook shooting, the Democrat believes the US is ready to embrace change around firearms Senator Chris Murphy believes that the tide is finally turning in favor of the gun safety movement in America. 10 years since Sandy Hook – what’s changed? Politics Weekly America special – podcastRead moreEven as Murphy acknowledges that more work is needed to address gun violence, the prominent Connecticut Democrat maintains that a growing backlash to mass shootings has brought the country to the brink of a sea change – 10 years after the devastating Sandy Hook school shooting in his home state.“We’ve built a movement in this country in the last 10 years that today, I would argue, is more powerful than the gun lobby,” Murphy said in an interview for a special episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast.“I think we are now poised to rack up victory after victory for gun safety,” he said.That reinvigorated movement emerged in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting and grew as subsequent atrocities sparked new activist groups and campaigns. Murphy still vividly remembers where he was when he got the news on 14 December 2012, that a shooter had attacked Sandy Hook elementary school. He was on a train platform in Bridgeport, Connecticut, preparing to take his family to New York to see the holiday decorations, when his chief of staff gave him the first fragments of news.“At first I thought it was a workplace shooting,” Murphy said. “But then, shortly before the train arrived, [we] got the news that there were children involved.”Democrats issue fresh calls for assault weapons ban after shooting tragediesRead moreMurphy soon learned that 20 young children and six staff had been killed at the school.The tragedy stunned the country but spurred millions of Americans to demand changes to gun laws, with Murphy playing a central role in the efforts.Since Sandy Hook, each time another mass shooting occurred, Murphy has taken to the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to act.“What are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this?” Murphy demanded just this May, after a gunman killed 19 children and two educators at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a racism-driven mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, the same month.“I‘m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: find a path forward here,” Murphy said.Murphy’s pleas for action and growing public outrage and activism finally produced results, as the Senate this year passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). Joe Biden signed the bill in June, marking the first time in nearly 30 years that the US approved a new major federal gun law. The BSCA expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and allocated funding for mental health and crisis intervention programs, among other initiatives.A number of policies demanded by gun safety advocates, including an assault weapons ban, did not make it into the BSCA. But Murphy and his allies point to the legislation, along with widespread public support for proposals like universal background checks, to argue that America is finally ready to make significant changes.The road ahead is still difficult. In just the few weeks since Murphy spoke to the Guardian, several more mass shootings occurred, from Colorado to Virginia.Murphy is the first to admit that it will take some time for the new federal law and other state policies to take effect, and more action is needed.“We haven’t seen the murder rates or the pace of mass shootings reduce. [But] once these laws start to get passed and put into place, I hope that we’re going to see some real returns,” Murphy said.Gun safety advocates insist that more regulations can result in fewer gun deaths. One study by the group Everytown for Gun Safety non-profit found a direct correlation between states with weaker gun laws and states with the highest levels of deaths caused by guns, including homicides, suicides and accidental killings.Divisions run deep in Uvalde after school shooting: ‘If you’re not trying you’re complicit’Read moreEven so, Republican lawmakers remain largely opposed to reforming federal gun policy. Fifteen Republican senators voted for the BSCA, ensuring enough support to overcome a filibuster. But more than two-thirds of Senate Republicans still opposed it. In the House, 193 Republicans voted against the BSCA, while just 14 of them joined Democrats in supporting it.Republicans’ broad opposition will make it extremely difficult to enact additional gun laws in the near future, especially after the party took control of the House in November’s midterm elections.Murphy concedes that Senate Democrats do not currently have the votes to pass an assault weapons ban.Still, he sees encouraging signs that more Republicans are willing to defy the National Rifle Association (NRA) on gun-related votes. For years, the NRA appeared to have an unshakable hold on the party, using its influence to block any gun bill. “Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a gun safety bill to pass the Senate with NRA opposition,” Murphy said. “Now, a whole bunch of Republican senators know that the NRA does not even represent gun owners any longer. And thus, they’re not paying as much attention.”But even as the NRA’s influence on the public and the GOP has waned, the anti-gun violence movement has encountered new hurdles. Earlier this year, the conservative-leaning US supreme Court struck down a New York law that strictly regulated carrying firearms outside the home, jeopardizing similar state policies across the country.The gun death rate also hit a 30-year high last year, as research suggests that a growing number of Americans are carrying firearms on a daily basis. And as more states allow residents to openly carry, guns are becoming a common fixture at rightwing political protests.Murphy is hopeful, however. If the 10 years between 2012 and 2022 were defined by many disappointing losses for the movement, Murphy predicts more positive change ahead.“I think you will see steady progress,” he said. “It won’t be everything that I want. We won’t get a ban on assault weapons overnight, but we’ll make regular progress. And that, I think, is what will define the next decade.”TopicsUS gun controlUS school shootingsNewtown shootingPodcastsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      10 years since Sandy Hook – what’s changed? Politics Weekly America special – podcast

      by

      More ways to listen

      Apple Podcasts

      Google Podcasts

      Spotify

      RSS Feed

      Download

      Share on Facebook

      Share on Twitter

      Share via Email

      On 14 December it will be 10 years since the Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting, when a 20-year-old killed 20 children aged six and seven, as well as six adults.
      The Guardian’s Joan E Greve travelled to Newtown, Connecticut to speak with Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden of Sandy Hook Promise, the parents of Dylan and Daniel, who were killed that day. She meets teenagers from the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, who now go through terrifying lockdown drills as preparation for another shooting, who want to see more change in gun legislation. She also speaks with Senator Chris Murphy, who helped draft the first significant gun control policy in the US in 30 years this year.
      Together they discuss what more could and should be done to stop such tragedies

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

      Archive: CBS, CNN, NBC, BBC, CSPAN Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Democrats issue fresh calls for assault weapons ban after shooting tragedies

      by

      Democrats issue fresh calls for assault weapons ban after shooting tragediesQuestions also raised about the funding of law enforcement agencies in places that refuse to enforce so-called red flag laws Gun control returned as a leading topic over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats issuing fresh calls for a ban on assault weapons for the general public.At the same time, questions were raised about the funding of law enforcement agencies in places that refuse to enforce so-called red flag laws, after shooting tragedies in Virginia and Colorado in the last two weeks.“If you passed an assault weapons ban you would see less mass shootings in this country,” Connecticut’s Democratic US Senator and leading gun control advocate, Chris Murphy, said on Sunday.He added: “You are not going to magically eliminate mass-shootings, but an AR-15, or AR-15 style weapon, is generally the choice of mass shooters.”Such a military-style rifle was used in the shooting at an LGBTQ night club in Colorado last weekend, although different firearms were used in the shootings of University of Virginia football team players earlier in the month and at a Walmart store, also in Virginia, two days before Thanksgiving, in a tragic spate of violence.‘It’s the guns’: violent week in a deadly year prompts familiar US responsesRead moreThe Democrat lawmaker pointed to a “dramatic decline” in mass-shootings after the decade-long assault weapons ban passed in 1994. “It wasn’t until the expiration date of the ban that we started to see mass shootings spiral up”.With Biden returning to the White House on Sunday afternoon after spending the Thanksgiving break with his family in Nantucket, the gun issue returned to prominence.On Thursday’s Thanksgiving day itself, Biden spoke about the “scourge” of gun violence, saying he wants to sign into law a ban on high-powered guns that have the capacity to kill many people quickly.“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick,” Biden said. “I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.”The Democratic-led House passed legislation in July to revive the 1990s-era ban on assault weapons, following the passage of a landmark bipartisan bill on guns, strengthening background checks and red flag laws, which allow authorities to remove firearms from those posing a danger.Colorado Springs shooter had allegedly threatened his mother with a bomb. Why could he still get a gun?Read moreBut the legislation is going nowhere in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass and Democrats lack Republican support.House majority whip Jim Clyburn admitted that an assault weapons ban and other gun restrictions would not get through Congress, even in the lame duck session while Democrats still control the House, but that did not mean it was not worth pursuing.“Just because it’s legal [to buy a gun] doesn’t mean it’s the right thing. Slavery was legal but it was not right,” he said.Murphy, who has been the Senate’s leading advocate for stronger gun control since at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, also told CNN on Sunday that one avenue Democrats might pursue is to restrict federal funding for law enforcement in counties that declare themselves gun sanctuaries.“We learned in Colorado that the county in which the shooting happened was a so-called second amendment sanctuary state,” Murphy said. “The majority of counties in this country have declared that they’re not going enforce state and federal gun laws.”“It’s a growing problem in the country and we’re going to have to have a conversation about that in the Senate. Do we want to to continue to supply funding to law enforcement in counties that refuse to implement state and federal gun laws?”Red flag laws, Murphy added, had proved wildly popular across the county but “we have to do something” about the refusal by 60% of counties to enforce gun control laws.On NBC, Kentucky Republican congressman James Comer said in respect of any additional gun regulations: “We already have many gun laws on the books … the number one priority with respect to crime in America for Republicans is going to be the fentanyl crisis” with respect to the traffic in illicit drugs across the US-Mexico border.NBC’s Meet the Press host, Chuck Todd, noted to Comer that “the states that have the most gun [control] laws have the least amount of per capita gun crime, and the states with the least amount of gun laws seem to have the most … so there is a correlation here, if you have more gun-related laws on the books as a state you have … fewer gun-related deaths. That’s been proven statistically.”Comer responded that in rural America most households had guns and “there aren’t a lot of crimes” because criminals know people are armed.TopicsUS gun controlColoradoUS politicsJoe BidenDemocratsnewsReuse this content More