The latest congressional news and analysis from political experts and historians.
Gun Legislation Is Part of the National Conversation, Again – July 7, 2022
In June 2022, Congress passed gun legislation, in the wake of ongoing carnage that included the deaths of ten people in a mass shooting targeting Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, and of twenty-one people, including nineteen children and two teachers, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Both massacres were perpetrated by eighteen-year-old males. The gun bill, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Bill, will strengthen background checks for eighteen-to-twenty-one-year-olds seeking to buy guns, make it more difficult for domestic abusers to obtain guns, and encourage states to enact "red flag" laws focused on dangerous individuals. It also provides funding for mental health services and school security. The House passed the bill on June 24. In this Congress Report, former congressional reporter, Deborah Kalb, discusses the history of gun legislation in recent American history.