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The Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at stanching acts of mass gun violence, with 15 Republicans joining Democrats to advance a bill combining modest new firearms restrictions with $15 billion in mental health and school security funding. The 65-to-33 vote represented an unlikely breakthrough on the emotional and polarizing question of U.S. gun laws, which have gone largely unchanged for more than 25 years, even as the nation has been repeatedly scarred by mass shootings whose names have become etched in history — from Columbine and Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and Parkland. (DeBonis, 6/23)

"This bill is a compromise," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who led the negotiations, right before the vote began. "It doesn't do everything I want. But what we are doing will save thousands of lives without violating anyone's Second Amendment rights." The legislation would incentivize states to pass red flag laws and expand background checks for 18- to 21-year-olds, among other measures. House leaders are expected to quickly begin consideration of the bill. In a statement shortly after the Senate vote, President Biden urged the House to act quickly on the bill. The House and Senate begin their two-week July 4 recess after Friday. (6/23)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that the House will take up the Senate-passed gun safety bill “first thing” Friday morning, after the legislation cleared the upper chamber in a bipartisan vote. “First thing tomorrow morning, the Rules Committee will meet to advance this life-saving legislation to the Floor. When the Rules Committee finishes its business, we will head immediately to the Floor,” Pelosi wrote in a statement minutes after the Senate approved the measure. (Schnell, 6/23)

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, written by a small group of Republicans and Democrats in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings, would enhance background checks for gun buyers between 18 and 21 years old, incentivize states to enact “red flag” laws that enable firearms to be temporarily confiscated from people deemed dangerous, and provide hundreds of millions of dollars for mental health and school safety. It would also extend to dating partners a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from purchasing guns. (Lai and Cochrane, 6/23)

The sudden voice from the intercom in the University of Louisville Hospital's emergency department is brief. "Room 9." The message may not mean much to visitors, but the surgeons, nurses and hospital staff for the Louisville region's main trauma center know exactly what it portends. Another person seriously wounded or dying — very possibly from a bullet, or two or three, ripping through their body. Last year, more than 800 people were shot in Louisville, or roughly two shootings per day. This year, nearly 200 people have been injured in nonfatal shootings in addition to over 80 killed in homicides through mid-June. (Kobin, 6/24)