Senate negotiators unveiled a bipartisan gun control bill yesterday, hours before it survived a preliminary vote with enough support to overcome a filibuster. Sixty-four senators voted to advance the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expands background-check requirements for gun buyers younger than 21, widens the categories of people who are not allowed to buy firearms, and provides federal funding for states with "red flag" laws.
The bill, which is the product of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans who want to be seen as doing something to prevent mass shootings and other kinds of gun violence, purports to achieve that goal without sacrificing Second Amendment rights. But the bill's details raise serious questions about its effectiveness and fairness. It pays lip service to civil liberties while canceling the gun rights of adults based on juvenile records, and it subsidizes state laws that suspend those rights without due process.
