在美国最近一次大规模枪击事件之后——这次是在周六，德克萨斯州艾伦的一个户外购物中心在那次袭击中，八人连同枪手嫌疑人总统一起被杀乔·拜登他再次呼吁禁止攻击性武器，尽管共和党反对者认为这种规定是错误的，通常是违宪的。
华盛顿目前在这个问题上的分歧根深蒂固，可以追溯到20世纪90年代中期，并受到选举政治的影响，包括1994年中期选举中民主党的溃败，这是他们40年来首次失去众议院。
国会对枪支法的最后一次重大行动是在2022年6月在德州乌瓦尔迪的罗布小学大屠杀后一个月，导致19名学生和两名教师死亡。
这项耗资132亿美元的两党安全社区法案得到了民主党人以及15名参议院共和党人人的支持，包括少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)和14名众议院共和党人。
但像拜登推动的武器禁令在国会山获得批准的可能性很小，甚至没有，共和党人已经拒绝了它。
虽然民主党议员在不同时期敦促进行更多的联邦枪支改革——主要集中在攻击式或军用级别的武器和弹药上，并扩大对谁可以和不可以拥有枪支的筛选过程——但共和党人最近表示，重点应该放在其他地方，增加公共安全以及对心理健康和社会问题的认识。
枪击事件仍在继续，新一轮的立法往往是在最严重的杀戮之后提出的:十年前在尤瓦尔迪和康涅狄格州纽敦的一所小学;13年前在哥伦拜恩高中，还有其他例子。
以下是对国会通过或否决的著名联邦枪支立法的回顾。
这个时间表在一定程度上反映了围绕枪支的政治以及关注枪支的政治家联盟是如何随着时间的推移而发生变化的——从20世纪90年代对犯罪的焦虑引起了跨党派的支持，到21世纪初对枪支制造商的大力支持，再到对减少校园杀人事件的强烈抗议，等等。
2022:两党的《更安全社区法案》将于2022年6月签署成为法律，打破了国会山在联邦枪支法律上近30年的僵局。“在华盛顿似乎不可能做任何事情的时候，我们正在做一些有意义的事情，”拜登接着说。该法律包括7.5亿美元，以帮助各州实施所谓的“红旗”法律，以消除被认为对自己或他人构成危险的人的枪支，以及其他暴力预防项目。它还为各种旨在支持国家心理健康机构和保障学校安全的项目提供资金。它加强了对21岁以下枪支购买者的背景调查，并堵塞了所谓的“男朋友漏洞”，因此被判犯有家庭暴力罪的“严重”的“约会关系”中的个人将被阻止购买枪支。但作为与保守派谈判的一部分，其他更严格的限制被取消，包括提高购买攻击性武器的最低年龄，所有枪支销售的强制性等待期和普遍背景调查。
2021:众议院民主党多数通过了两项扩大背景调查的轻微两党措施，尽管共和党人以第二修正案为由重申反对。一项法案将销售审查窗口从3个工作日增加到10个工作日;另一项法案基本上要求对所有交易进行背景调查，禁止非联邦许可实体销售或转让火器(堵住所谓的私人漏洞)。众议院民主党人投票赞成第一项法案，两名共和党人也投了赞成票(两名民主党人投了反对票)。除了一名民主党人和八名共和党人以外，所有民主党人都对第二项法案投了赞成票，该法案此前在2019年通过了众议院，也由民主党控制。
参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔在2019年6月5日在国会山举行的新闻发布会上发表讲话，纪念6月为枪支暴力预防月，并纪念众议院通过h . r . 8 100天。
亚历克斯·王/盖蒂图片公司
2018:国会通过，唐纳德·特朗普总统签署法律，逐步加强对潜在枪支拥有者的联邦背景调查系统。(这项立法是由两党广泛支持的必要的政府支出计划的一部分。)
2017:特朗普签署了一项国会逆转奥巴马时代规则的法律，该规则将通过一名代表向联邦背景调查系统增加约75，000名接受社会保障精神残疾福利的人。众议院和参议院的共和党多数派与少数民主党人一起——参议院4人，众议院6人——阻止即将到来的监管，这受到公民自由和枪支权利倡导者的反对。
2017:众议院共和党多数派加入了六名民主党人，其中14名共和党人反对，认为联邦政府越权，支持一项通过互惠法在全国范围内扩大隐蔽携带许可证的措施，要求各州尊重在其他地方发放的许可证。该议案在参议院被否决。
2013-2016:部分原因是桑迪胡克小学和脉动夜总会杀戮，国会采取然后否决各种措施，扩大对网上销售和枪支展览的背景调查，阻止禁飞和恐怖主义观察名单上的人购买枪支。在2016年的一组代表性投票中，民主党和共和党参议员(共和党占多数)各自提出了两项提案，但都被政党路线阻止。虽然其中一些措施获得了多数票，但没有一项措施获得了克服阻挠所需的60票，因为潜在的胜利妥协因战术和方法上的分歧而受到损害。尽管如此，缅因州共和党人苏珊·科林斯重申了希望——在这条线的某个地方——引用“过道两边的巨大兴趣”
2013:参议院的一个两党小组未能批准他们自己在全国范围内扩大隐蔽携带许可证，类似于众议院后来在2017年采取的措施，以及早些时候在2011年试图通过的措施。当时占少数的共和党人与12名民主党人一起加入，其中许多人后来表示，他们反对扩张，因为该党及其基础再次承诺围绕减少枪支和枪击事件传递信息。
2005:国会的共和党多数派和数十名民主党人一起通过了合法武器贸易保护法案，该法案由乔治·w·布什总统签署成为法律。这项立法保护枪支制造商在他们的枪支被用于犯罪的几乎所有情况下免于承担法律责任，但枪支设计缺陷、违约和疏忽除外。(PLCAA此后成为民主党愤怒的主要目标，被拜登总统挑出来，尽管这种保护在其他行业也不是没有过。)
2004:10年前签署成为法律的攻击性武器禁令将于2004年9月根据预定的“日落”日期结束。在禁令到期之前，国会民主党人寻求将禁令再延长十年或扩大范围。时任总统乔治·w·布什也表示，他支持延长限制，这被视为他的白宫与全国步枪协会不同寻常的决裂。该禁令虽然取缔了19种枪支，但有一些关键的例外，使其在枪支控制倡导者中引起争议。
1999:预演失败的努力即将到来，国会投票否决立法，建立背景调查和枪支展览购买等待期。
1994:在后来成为联邦枪支立法的最后一个重要部分由国会颁布的联邦攻击性武器禁令禁止制造和拥有大量半自动武器。该条款是1994年全面犯罪法案的一部分，由当时的参议员拜登牵头，由比尔·克林顿总统签署成为法律。这个时代的枪支立法在政治上与联邦政府遏制犯罪的努力交织在一起。虽然众议院以微弱优势通过了人身攻击禁令，后来又成功地通过了整体犯罪立法——在第一种情况下，大多数民主党人和38名共和党人加入了进来;后来，与46名共和党人一起，犯罪法案在参议院以压倒性优势获得通过，只有两名民主党人和两名共和党人投票反对，一名民主党人，北达科他州的拜伦·l·多根弃权。1994年底，参议院以微弱优势批准了与众议院的和解版本，七名共和党人加入了民主党的多数派。不久后，克林顿签署了该协议。攻击禁令包括对非法武器的一些豁免，以及10年后的日落日期，这被视为必要的让步。随后重新授权禁令的努力失败了。
1993:在攻击性武器禁令的一年前，在公众对街头犯罪的强烈担忧中，众议院和参议院支持了布雷迪手枪暴力预防法案(以罗纳德·里根总统的新闻秘书詹姆斯·布雷迪命名，他在1981年里根的未遂暗杀中受了重伤)。通常被称为布雷迪法案，它对联邦许可的卖家进行背景调查，并在最初对销售施加五天的等待期-随着全国即时犯罪背景调查系统的推出，这一条款后来被搁置。三分之二的众议院民主党人和三分之一的众议院共和党人人一起对这项立法投了赞成票。尽管8名民主党参议员投了反对票(1人弃权)，但16名参议院共和党人议员和民主党多数议员同意通过该法案。克林顿总统签署成为法律。
The gun legislation Congress has passed and rejected amid mass shootings: Timeline
After the latest mass shooting in America -- this time atan outdoor mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday, in which eight people were killed along with the suspected gunman -- PresidentJoe Bidenrepeated his call for a ban on assault-style weapons, despite Republican opponents arguing such regulations are misguided and usually unconstitutional.
Washington's current divide on the issue is deeply rooted, tracing back to the mid-1990s, and has been shaped by electoral politics including the Democratic rout in the 1994 midterms that saw them lose the House for the first time in 40 years.
The last major action from Congress on gun lawswas in June 2022, about a month after the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas,that killed 19 students and two teachers.
That compromise, the $13.2 billion Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, was backed by Democrats as well as 15 Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and 14 House Republicans.
But a weapons ban like the one pushed by Biden has little to no chance of being approved on Capitol Hill, where Republicans have rejected it.
While Democratic lawmakers have at various times urged more federal gun reforms -- mostly focused on assault-style or military-grade weapons and munitions and expanding the screening process for who can and cannot have a gun -- Republicans more recently say the focus should be elsewhere, on increasing public security and awareness of mental health and social issues.
Still the shootings continue, with new rounds of legislation often proposed in the wake of the worst killings: in Uvalde and in a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school a decade earlier; and at Columbine High School 13 years before that, among other examples.
Here is a look back at notable pieces of federal gun legislation that either passed or were defeated in Congress.
The timeline reflects in part how the politics around guns, and the coalitions of politicians focusing on it, have shifted over time -- from anxieties about crime in the '90s that drew across-the-aisle endorsements to major support for gun manufacturers in the early 2000s to outcry about reducing school killings, and beyond.
2022:The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act breaks a nearly 30-year stalemate on Capitol Hill over federal gun laws when it is signed into law in June 2022. "At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential," Biden says then. The law includes $750 million to help states implement so-called "red flag" laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others as well as other violence prevention programs. It also provides funding for a variety of programs aimed at shoring up the nation's mental health apparatus and securing schools. It enhances background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21 and closes what is known as the "boyfriend loophole" so individuals in "serious" "dating relationships" who are convicted of domestic abuse will be prevented from purchasing a gun. But other, tougher restrictions are taken off the table as part of negotiations with conservatives, including raising the minimum age to buy assault-type weapons, mandatory waiting periods for all gun sales and universal background checks.
2021:The House Democratic majority passes two lightly bipartisan measures expanding background checks, despite Republicans reiterating objections on Second Amendment grounds. One bill increases the window for review on a sale from three to 10 business days; the other bill essentially requires background checks on all transactions by barring the sale or transfer of firearms by non-federally licensed entities (closing so-called private loopholes). House Democrats vote to approve the first bill along with two Republicans (and two Democrats voting no). All Democrats except for one along with eight Republicans vote yes on the second bill, which previously passed the House in 2019, also under Democratic control.
2018:Congress passes and President Donald Trump signs into law an incremental boost to the federal background check system for potential gun owners. (The legislation is included as part of a necessary government spending package approved by wide bipartisan margins.)
2017:Trump signs into law a congressional reversal of an Obama-era rule which would have added an estimated 75,000 people to the federal background check system who were receiving Social Security mental disability benefits through a representative. Republican majorities in the House and Senate are joined by a few Democrats -- four in the Senate and and six in the House -- in blocking the impending regulation, which is opposed by both civil liberties and gun rights advocates.
2017:The House Republican majority is joined by six Democrats -- with 14 Republicans opposing, arguing federal overreach -- in backing a measure expanding concealed carry permits across the country via a reciprocity law requiring states to honor permits issued elsewhere. The bill dies in the Senate.
2013-2016:Partially prompted by theSandy Hook Elementary SchoolandPulse nightclubkillings, Congress takes up and then votes down various measures to expand background checks for sales online and at gun shows and to block people on no-fly and terrorism watch lists from being able to buy firearms. In one representative set of votes, in 2016, Democratic and Republican senators (with Republicans in the majority) each advance two proposals that are blocked along party lines. While some of those measures garner a majority, none get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster as a potential winning compromise is frayed by differences over tactics and approach. Still, Susan Collins, R-Maine, reiterates hope -- somewhere down the line -- citing "tremendous interest from both sides of the aisle."
2013:A bipartisan group in the Senate fails to approve their own expansion of concealed carry permits across the country, similar to what the House later takes up in 2017 and earlier tries to pass in 2011. Republicans, then in the minority, are joined by 12 Democrats -- many of whom later say they oppose the expansion as the party and its base recommits to messaging around reducing guns and shootings.
2005:Congress' Republican majority is joined by dozens of Democrats in passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The legislation shields gun manufacturers from legal liability in almost all instances where their firearms are criminally used -- with exceptions for defects in gun design, breach of contract and negligence. (PLCAA has since become a major target of Democratic ire, singled out by President Biden, though such protections are not unheard of for other industries.)
2004:The assault weapons ban signed into law 10 years earlier -- and detailed below -- ends in September 2004 according to a predetermined "sunset" date. Ahead of the expiration, congressional Democrats seek either to extend the ban another decade or to broaden it. Then-President George W. Bush also says he supports renewing the restrictions, in what is seen as an unusual break of his White House from the National Rifle Association. The ban, though outlawing 19 kinds of firearms, has some key exceptions that make it controversial among gun control advocates.
1999:Previewing failed efforts to come, Congress votes down legislation to institute background checks and waiting periods for purchases at gun shows.
1994:In what would becomethe last major piece of federal gun legislationenacted by Congress, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban bars the manufacture and possession of a broad swath of semiautomatic weapons. The provision is included as part of the sweeping 1994 crime bill, shepherded by then-Sen. Biden and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Gun legislation in this era is politically intertwined with federal efforts to curb crime. While the House narrowly passes the assault ban on its own and then later, successfully, via the overall crime legislation -- in the first case, with most of the Democratic majority being joined by 38 Republicans; later, along with 46 Republicans -- the crime bill is approved overwhelmingly in the Senate, with only two Democrats and two Republicans voting against and one Democrat, North Dakota's Byron L. Dorgan, abstaining. The Senate approves with slimmer margins a reconciled version with the House in late 1994, with seven Republicans joining the Democratic majority. Clinton signs it shortly after. The assault ban includes some exemptions on the outlawed weapons along with a sunset date after 10 years, in what were seen as necessary concessions. Subsequent efforts to reauthorize the ban have failed.
1993:A year before the assault weapon ban, and amid sharp public concern about street-level crime, the House and Senate back the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (named for President Ronald Reagan's press secretary James Brady, who was gravely wounded in Reagan's attempted assassination in 1981). Commonly known as the Brady bill, it institutes background checks for federally licensed sellers and initially imposes a five-day waiting period on sales -- a provision that is later sunset with the launch of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Two-thirds of House Democrats are joined by a third of House Republicans in voting yes on the legislation. Although eight Democratic senators vote no (and one abstains), 16 Senate Republicans approve its passage along with the Democratic majority. President Clinton signs it into law.
