Joe Biden signed legislation to implement gun control, the largest in nearly 30 years, on Saturday, June 25. A text which remains however well below what the American president aspired to. “While this law does not include everything I want, it includes measures that I have long called for and that will save lives,” he said at the White House before flying to the airport. ‘Europe.
The legislation, backed by members of both the Democratic and Republican parties, was passed to the applause of Congress on Friday. It introduces new gun restrictions and spends billions on mental health and school safety. The parliamentary initiative was launched after the massacre of Uvalde, which left 21 dead, including 19 children, in an elementary school in Texas at the end of May, and that of Buffalo in the State of New York, during which 10 people black women were killed in a supermarket in mid-May.
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A new “monumental” legislation
The text aims in particular to strengthen the verification of criminal and psychological backgrounds for arms buyers aged 18 to 21 and to establish better control of the illegal sale of arms, and the financing of programs dedicated to mental health. But the proposed measures fall far short of what President Biden wanted, such as banning assault rifles. After a series of deadly shootings, the text is still a first for decades.
Citing the difficulty of passing legislation on such a sensitive subject in the United States in a divided Congress, President Biden called the new legislation “monumental”. The message from the shooting victims, he said, was “do something, damn it, do something.” “Well, today we did something. I know there is still a lot of work to do and I will never give up,” he promised.
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