For what might be the first time in decades, there is movement among both parties – and both chambers of Congress – to reach some sort of agreement on gun reform, though what has the potential to make it to the president’s desk will likely be a narrower set of new safety measures than what many advocates and Democrats would like.
The renewed push comes in the wake of a series of mass shootings across the country. In the past several weeks, suspects have opened fire at grocery stores, schools, hospitals, cemeteries and in the streets, leaving dozens of victims and their family members to grieve in the aftermath.
On Wednesday, activists, survivors of gun violence and family members of victims descended on Washington, D.C. to call on lawmakers to heed the moment and protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence.
“We are calling on our elected officials to do what we elected them to do,” said Kelly Dianne Gallaway, an advocate who traveled to the nation’s capital from Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black Americans were killed in a supermarket rampage. “Their job is to shift and to change and to bring the community action that we need.”
And there is some evidence that this time might be different. The House on Wednesday is debating a slew of bills relating to gun reform, including one that would raise the minimum age to purchase and AR-style semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 and another that would give federal courts the power to prohibit certain individuals from purchasing firearms.
The American public overwhelmingly supports the idea of raising the age for purchasing semi-automatic weapons to 21, according to a Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they favored raising the purchasing age compared to 24% who did not; around 57% of Americans supported stricter gun laws in general.
While the measures introduced in the House so far may not make it to the president’s desk, some of the same proposals are actively being discussed privately among a bipartisan group of senators trying to compromise on gun reform.
The House of Representatives debated on a series of gun reform measures that are popular among Democrats, but less so among Republicans. The package of eight bills, known as the "Protecting Our Kids Act," passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote in early June.
The composite bill would “provide for an increased age limit on the purchase of certain firearms, prevent gun trafficking, modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms, encourage the safe storage of firearms,” among other issues.
The first in the series of several votes Wednesday – the measure increasing the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 – passed in a 228-199, with 10 Republicans joining the vast majority of Democrats to approve the measure.
The full measure passed in a 223-204, with five Republicans joining all but two House Democrats in supporting the bill.
Reps. Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., Fred Upton, R-Mich., Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., bucked the GOP to support the bill, while Democrats Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, who frequently break with their party, opposed the bill.
Those in support of the bill pointed to the suspect in the Uvalde shooting, who legally purchased several semi-automatic weapons after his 18th birthday and in the days leading up to the massacre.
“Why would someone be against raising the age so that teenagers do not have AK-47s?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a rally with Everytown for Gun Safety in Washington on Wednesday.
The package would also make it illegal to sell, import, manufacture or possess most large-capacity magazines; ban straw purchases of guns, where an individual buys a firearm for another person; crack down on so-called “ghost guns” that are untraceable due to their lack of serial numbers and establish safe-storage requirements for those with firearms in their homes.
But most Republicans have balked at perceived restrictions on the Second Amendment that the bill would impose.
“We can secure our schools without giving an inch on our Second Amendment rights. We can certify and arm teachers and make sure that these schools are impenetrable,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a press conference on Wednesday, encouraging her GOP colleagues to vote against the House bills. “I did not come to Congress to negotiate the rights of my constituents away.”
Even if the package does pass the House, it is unlikely to survive in the evenly-divided Senate, where any legislation will require the support of at least 10 Republican senators.
As a key Congressional panel on Wednesday heard from shooting survivors and the parents of Uvalde and Buffalo shooting victims, a bipartisan group of senators continued to work to compromise on gun safety legislation after the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings.
A package is likely to include expanded background checks and incentives for states to implement red flag laws, which could allow for weapons to be confiscated when owners are considered a threat to themselves or others. It is also expected to include measures to strengthen school safety and mental health programs.
“This time we have more manpower. We have more volunteers, we have more advocates,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the chief negotiator for potential legislation.
Democratic senators say they hope to release a framework of a deal by the end of the week, while Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a lead negotiator, told reporters Wednesday that securing a deal “in the next couple of weeks” would be an “aspirational goal.”
Murphy, who came to Congress representing the community where 20 children were killed at Sandy Hook elementary, also met with President Joe Biden on Tuesday to update him on the bipartisan talks. Biden has called for Congress to go further with legislation by banning semi-automatic weapons and raising the purchasing age to 21.
“As I stand here today, as we are working through negotiations with our Republican colleagues, I am preparing to succeed,” Murphy said at a rally near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday led by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. “I am preparing to save lives.”
Republicans have also expressed optimism about a deal.
Sen. Cornyn said on the Senate floor Wednesday that the group was “making steady progress.”
“It is early in the process, but I am optimistic about where things stand now,” he said. “I'm optimistic that we could pass a bill in the Senate, it could pass in the House and it could get a signature by President Biden. It will become law of the land.”
"Nobody knows exactly what we're going to do, including me," Cornyn told reporters later Wednesday. "We've got a foundation of ideas but we're going through a long and arduous process of trying to build that out and give greater definition to it"
Among Republicans asked about potential changes on Wednesday, both Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said they would consider supporting a measure to raise the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.