President Biden calls on House to swiftly pass the bill and send it to his desk.
In 65-33 vote on Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed the gun control bill a bipartisan group of legislators had been negotiating for weeks following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Fifteen Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill. Mississippi’s two GOP Senators were not among them.
The final vote in Senate followed a procedural vote earlier in the week where Senators in opposition to the bill were unhappy with the way the bill was handled. The legislative text was only released about 30 minutes before the actual Senate vote.
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith told Y’all Politics she was for improved school security but had concerns over the bill’s infringement on the constitutional rights of Americans.
“Protecting the Second Amendment rights must be carefully considered with any attempts to write gun control legislation. I’m all for improving school security and stopping mass shootings,” Hyde-Smith said. “However, the negotiated package being rushed through the Senate raises many concerns, including infringing on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens as federal agencies and individual states are given new opportunities to determine just who shouldn’t have firearms.”
Senator Hyde-Smith said she could not support the “take-it-or-leave-it legislative option presented to the Senate.”
Senate Roger Wicker also had reservations on the bill, expressing his concern over due process and the Second Amendment.
“In my conversations with law enforcement officers following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, I have learned they are principally concerned with addressing the serious mental health challenges that lead to mass shootings,” Wicker said. “This proposal goes beyond that and introduces too many unanswered questions about due process and the Second Amendment.”
President Joe Biden called on the U.S. House to take up the bill and pass it in short order, which it is expected to as early as today.
Frank Corder
