House set to vote today on gun laws in response to Uvalde school shooting
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WASHINGTON — A key House committee is set to take up a sweeping package of gun reforms today, marking the first legislative response to the school shooting in Uvalde last week.
The reforms go further than any gun control measure that has passed the House since the assault weapons ban of the 1990s, raising the age to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, banning high-capacity magazines, creating requirements for safe gun storage in homes, and more.
The package of eight bills before the committee would build on legislation that passed the Democrat-controlled House last year requiring background checks for virtually all gun buyers and giving the FBI more time to run those checks.
That legislation has been stuck in the evenly divided Senate and the new reforms are likely to face a similar fate. Still, the committee vote marks the first action in Congress after an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, in Uvalde, sparking cries for new restrictions on firearms.
The House Judiciary Committee is set to take up the package at 9 a.m. Several Texans are on the committee, including U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, and Chip Roy, an Austin Republican.
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Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is working to negotiate a compromise bill that could get enough GOP votes to pass the chamber. It’s unclear what the Senate bill might include, but Cornyn has said he isn’t taking anything off the table, including possible red flag laws.
Many Republicans remain opposed to any new action on guns, however, calling instead for beefing up security in schools.
“Ultimately, as we all know, what stops armed bad guys is armed good guys,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said in an address to the NRA last week.
ben.wermund@chron.com
The Uvalde school massacre