“Some think it goes too far, others think it doesn’t go far enough. And I get it. It’s the nature of compromise,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said about a bipartisan gun violence bill.
Aides estimated the measure would cost around $15 billion, which Murphy said would be fully paid for.
After 10 Black shoppers were killed last month in Buffalo, New York, and 19 children and two teachers died days later in Uvalde, Texas, Democrats and some Republicans decided that this time, measured steps were preferable to Congress’ usual reaction to such horrors — gridlock. “Some think it goes too far, others think it doesn’t go far enough. And I get it. It’s the nature of compromise,” Cornyn said.
The National Rifle Association, which has spent decades derailing gun control legislation, said it opposed the measure. “It falls short at every level. It does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners,” the gun lobby group said.
What’s uncertain is whether the agreement and its passage would mark the beginning of slow but gradual congressional action to curb gun violence, or the high water mark on the issue. Until Buffalo and Uvalde, a numbing parade of mass slayings — at sites including elementary and high schools, houses of worship, military facilities, bars and the Las Vegas Strip — have yielded only stalemate in Washington.
The senators did not initially describe how they’d resolved the two major stumbling blocks that had delayed agreement on the plan’s legislative language.