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Biden Signs Bipartisan Gun Bill Into Law - The New York Times
Jun 25, 2022 2 mins, 10 secs

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Saturday signed into law a bipartisan gun bill intended to prevent dangerous people from accessing firearms and increase investments in the nation’s mental health system, ending nearly three decades of gridlock in Washington over how to address gun violence in the United States.

Final passage of the legislation in Congress came one month after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead, a horror that galvanized a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strike a narrow compromise.

Biden said as he put his pen down on Saturday morning, “it’s going to save a lot of lives.”.

The president acknowledged that the legislation fell far short of the sweeping measures he had pushed for, but he said it included some long-sought priorities.

On Saturday, the president also signed a bill extending free meals and other food assistance for children.

The gun legislation will expand the background check system for prospective gun buyers under the age of 21, giving authorities up to 10 business days to examine juvenile and mental health records.

It sets aside millions of dollars so states can fund intervention programs, such as mental health and drug courts, and carry out so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from any person found by a judge to be too dangerous to possess them.

It pours more federal money into mental health resources in communities and schools across the country, and it sets aside millions for school safety.

Biden said he would host both families affected by gun violence and the lawmakers who helped craft the measure at an event at the White House in July, after the Fourth of July recess, and suggested the compromise was a sign that more bipartisan efforts were possible?

Biden also called on lawmakers to expand background checks, but an effort to pass that measure and other gun control provisions failed in the Senate.

As lawmakers reeled from the images that came out of the Texas shooting, however, party leaders offered their tacit blessing to a small coalition of senators eager to strike a compromise.

Murphy of Connecticut, both Democrats, joined Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Republicans, to strike a deal.

“I know that the discussion is overwhelmingly about the politics of it, and frankly, to quote a famous movie, I don’t give a damn,” said Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, recalling that he had supported raising the minimum age to buy an assault weapon before it became clear it was a nonstarter for most Republicans

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