A deal at least was signed on Sunday in the United States between Republican and Democratic senators for better supervision of firearms. In the process, Joe Biden, the American president, welcomed the “insufficient but “important” “advances”. This agreement, which comes after several dozen mass shootings in recent weeks, including in Buffalo and Uvalde, will still have to be voted on by the Senate and will need the support of ten Republican senators.
The agreement provides in particular to expand the “red flag laws”, which already exist in 18 states (mainly controlled by Democrats) which allow the courts to confiscate a firearm from a person deemed to be at risk. And if the text does not raise the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic weapon such as an AR-15 rifle, used in many mass shootings, it provides for a tightening of “background checks” (background checks, in particular on the mental health) for young people aged 18 to 21.
If the agreement becomes law, it would be the most important to restrict access to weapons since the 1994 agreement which banned the sale of semi-automatic weapons for ten years. Joe Biden is calling for a return to this ban, but almost all Republicans, under pressure from their electorate and the arms lobby, the NRA, oppose it.
