Senate Advances Gun Safety Bill After Deal Struck

NPR: Senators Reach Final Bipartisan Agreement On A Gun Safety Bill 
Senate negotiators have reached a final agreement on a narrow bipartisan gun safety bill that could become the first gun control measure to pass Congress in decades. The legislation resulted from negotiations among 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, and it is expected to have more than enough votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold to clear a filibuster in the Senate, which is divided 50-50 between the parties. House leaders are expected to quickly begin consideration of the bill and President Biden has encouraged Congress to pass the bill without delay. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have both announced support for the bill and both say they will vote for it. (Snell, 6/21)

USA Today: Senate Gun Bill Text Includes More Background Checks
The bill would also close the "boyfriend loophole," a legislative gray space that leaves some women vulnerable to gun-related domestic violence. People convicted of domestic violence, or who are subject to a domestic violence restraining order, can't purchase firearms under the current law. But that law only applies if the abuser is a spouse, ex-spouse, co-parent or someone with whom the victim has lived. Women who don't live with their partners aren't protected from them under existing law. (Lee, 6/21)

The Hill: Here Are The 14 GOP Senators Who Voted To Advance Gun Safety Bill 
Every Senate Democrat was expected to support the bill, even though it didn’t include more far-reaching reforms that many of them support, such as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and universal background checks.  The vote shakes up the politics of the gun violence debate in Congress as many of the Republicans who voted to proceed to the bill have A or A-plus NRA ratings.  Here are the 14 Republicans who voted yes. (Bolton, 6/21)

KHN: Senate Deal Raises Hopes For A Reduction In Gun Suicides 
A bipartisan U.S. Senate agreement negotiated after high-profile mass shootings in Texas, New York, and Oklahoma lacks gun access restrictions that advocates say are needed to prevent such attacks. But the deal’s focus on mental health has raised hopes — and doubts — that it will help reduce gun suicides, particularly in rural Western states with wide-open gun laws. Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and Idaho perennially rank highest among states in gun suicide rates. And despite research that concludes stringent firearm safety laws help curb gun violence, lawmakers in those states have long rejected restrictions that experts say would reverse those decades-long trends. (Graf, 6/22)

More details emerge on the massacre in Uvalde, Texas —

The New York Times: Head of State Police Calls Response to Uvalde Shooting an ‘Abject Failure’
The head of the Texas State Police on Tuesday offered a pointed and emphatic rebuke of the police response to a shooting last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, calling it “an abject failure” that ran counter to decades of training. In his comments before a special State Senate committee in Austin, Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, provided the most complete public account yet of his agency’s month-old investigation and a forceful argument that officers at the scene could have — and should have — confronted the gunman without delay after arriving. Just minutes after a gunman began shooting children on May 24, he said, the officers at the scene had enough firepower and protective equipment to storm into the classrooms. (Goodman, 6/21)

KVUE: First Interior Image Released In Uvalde School Shooting Shows Officers With More Firepower Than Previously Believed
On Monday, KVUE and its news partners at the Austin American-Statesman exclusively obtained surveillance footage from inside Robb Elementary School on the day of the May 24 shooting. The footage shows that multiple officers were inside the building with rifles and at least one ballistic shield, 19 minutes after the gunman arrived. They didn't enter the classroom the shooter was inside for nearly another hour. (6/20)

KSAT: Officer Husband Of Slain Uvalde Teacher Was Detained, Had Gun Taken Away After Trying To Save Wife
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw revealed that the husband of slain elementary teacher Eva Mireles tried to save her but was barred from doing so. Ruben Ruiz is a police officer for the school district and was on the scene after the gunman entered the school and opened fire. McCraw said Mireles called Ruiz and told him that “she had been shot and was dying.” “And what happened to him, is he tried to move forward into the hallway,” McCraw said. “He was detained and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.” (Patton, 6/21)

CNN: Uvalde School Massacre: Mayor Slams State Agency Investigating Shooting, Says Elementary Building Will Be Demolished 
The mayor of Uvalde, Texas, visibly frustrated with the constantly changing information released about what happened the day 19 children and two teachers were gunned down, lashed out Tuesday, telling residents at a city council meeting he's tired of being kept in the dark about what evidence has been uncovered. At the meeting, Mayor Don McLaughlin also said Robb Elementary, where the massacre occurred May 24, will be razed. (Flores, Levenson and Riess, 6/22)

More on the gun violence epidemic —

Houston Chronicle: Rice University Event On Gun Violence Showcases Local Efforts To Address Public Health Crisis
Evolving efforts to curb gun violence in Houston were on full display Tuesday at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, where doctors, researchers and community leaders discussed their role in addressing the worsening public health crisis of firearm injuries and deaths. The gathering signaled a solidifying county-wide response to what has become the leading cause of traumatic injury and death among children. The all-day event was especially timely, coming on the heels of the worst school shooting in Texas history that killed 19 students and 2 teachers. (Gill, 6/21)

USA Today: Run, Hide, Fight: School Shooter Drills Can Have Traumatic Consequences. But Do They Work?
To better understand how students and staff are taught to respond to active shooter situations nationwide, USA TODAY contacted every state and the 25 largest school districts. The findings show active shooter trainings vary widely, lack oversight and may do more harm than good. ... Research shows drills can have negative mental health impacts for students, teachers and families. But researchers say it’s hard to study whether drills actually help save lives. (Hauck, Quintana, Wong, Menchaca, Linnane, and Delgado, 6/21)