President Biden said on Sunday that he plans to sign gun safety reforms proposed by a bipartisan group of senators earlier in the day, adding that he hopes legislation comes to his desk soon.
“I want to thank Senator Chris Murphy and the members of his bipartisan group—especially Senators Cornyn, Sinema, and Tillis—for their tireless work to produce this proposal,” Biden said in a statement, calling the proposed legislation the “most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”
“Obviously, it does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades,” Biden added.
“With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House. Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives,” Biden concluded.
Biden’s remarks came shortly after the bipartisan group of 20 senators announced that they had drafted a framework for legislation to reduce gun violence in the U.S.
It includes funding for school safety resources, expanded background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21, investments in children and family mental health services and incentives for states to implement “red flag’ laws.
The proposal comes as a response to the recent string of mass shootings in the U.S. in the past few weeks that led to more debate on gun control and safety.
“Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons. Most importantly, our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a member of the Senate group that worked on the deal, said in a statement.
“We look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing our commonsense proposal into law,” Kelly concluded.
–Updated at 12:52 p.m.