U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was one of 14 Republican Senators to vote for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a federal bill aimed at addressing the high levels of gun violence in the United States.<\/p>\n
The bill hasn’t officially passed the Senate yet, but enough Senators have expressed support for the legislation needed to pass the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.<\/p>\n
Speaking with reporters from Washington, D.C., Murkowski said the bill focused on mental health issues and did nothing to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners.<\/p>\n
“The American public deserves to see some response,” Murkowski said, in reference to the high rate of mass-shooting events in the U.S. Recent high profile events include a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and 2 adults at an elementary school and Buffalo, New York, where a gunman killed 10 mostly African American people at a grocery store.<\/p>\n
The senator called the legislation, “a thoughtful and targeted approach to the specific problems that have led to several of these mass shootings,” and emphasized the bill’s targeting of mental health issues rather than restrictions on firearms.<\/p>\n
[Faculty union rallies for renewed negotiations<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n According to Murkowski, one of the bill’s provisions extends background checks for gun purchasers under 21 to include any juvenile criminal record. A potential buyer between 18-21 with a juvenile conviction for crimes disqualifying an adult from purchasing a gun will no longer be able to purchase a firearm, Murkowski said.<\/p>\n The bill also provided provisions to close what Murkowski called the “boyfriend loophole,” to address domestic abusers with no legal relationship to their victim.<\/p>\n The bill also provides funding for the expansion of mental health services, an aspect of the bill Murkowski called “historic.”<\/p>\n “Access to mental health services is really emphasized in this measure,” Murkowski said. “It invests in telehealth and mental health, early identification and intervention.”<\/p>\n The bill will provide an additional $2.5 billion nationwide for the Stop School Violence grants from the U.S. Department of Justice, Murkowski said.<\/p>\n But while the bill received unprecedented bipartisan support, including from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, 34 Republican senators including Alaska’s Sen. Dan Sullivan voted against the bill.<\/p>\n Sullivan’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n The legislation was also opposed by the National Rifle Association, which said the bill fell short of actually preventing gun violence.<\/p>\n