President Joe Biden signs the Gun Control bill; The first new law in 28 ye

Washington: Against the background of the frequent mass shooting incidents in the United States, President Biden has signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act bill for gun control in the United States. The bill has provisions for strict background checks on gun buyers, mental health services programs and funds for the states to implement harsh regulations. This is the first act passed in the United States in the last 28 years since the Federal Assault Weapons Ban act passed in 1994. The US Supreme court scrapped the gun control-related act in New York last week. Against this background, the new act passed by the Biden administration became important.

President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and said, “There have been indiscriminate firing incidents everywhere from Columbine to Uvalde. We are not even aware of how many American lives are lost every day in shooting incidents on US roads. But all these are appealing that something should be done about it. The new law will save many lives.”

More than 250 mass shooting incidents have been reported in the five and a half months between January and June, claiming nearly 400 lives. Out of these, the two mass shooting incidents in May were shocking as they killed 21 people, including 19 children, in the indiscriminate firing in the Rob Elementary School in Texas. Ten people were killed in the shooting at a mall in Buffalo in New York. These two recent incidents brought the issue of gun control on priority again.

Senators of both the political parties came together after the Rob Elementary School shooting incident and demanded the new law. The bill was formulated one month later and presented to the US Senate. The bill was passed in the US Senate with a majority of 65 against 33. After that, the US House of Representatives passed the bill and made it a law in just two days. This becomes the first instance of a bill related to Gun Control being passed in such a short period.

This is the first instance in 28 years that a bill relating to Gun Control has been passed in the US Congress. In 1994, the US Congress had approved the Federal Assault Weapons Ban act. Despite multiple mass shooting incidents in the United States, the Gun Control bills could not be passed as they always faced bitter opposition from the Republican party. The provision in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act demands stringent background checks for people under the age of 21 is quite significant.