Lawmakers tout new gun law following Highland Park parade shooting
Nam Y. Huh/AP
Law enforcement search after a mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb on Monday, July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Monday's mass shooting at a Highland Park, Ill., Fourth of July parade was among the first large massacres since President Joe Biden signed a new gun bill into law last month.
The bill came following several other mass shootings, most notably at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, was among those touting the legislation.
"There are people around this country who are poised to do terrible things if we do not intervene and try to change their lives. Some of them we know as children, who need that kind of a helping hand," Durbin told reporters.
Durbin noted that as of Monday evening, little was revealed publicly about the shooter's motives, background or how he obtained the weapon used in the shooting that left six people dead and nearly two dozen others wounded.
"The gun bill that we passed in the Senate, the bipartisan gun bill addresses many of the aspects of this mass shooters, and some of that involves mental health counseling, trauma counseling. We have to reach out at an early age to turn these lives around," Durbin added.
Biden released a statement following Monday's shooting, noting the new law.
"I recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in almost thirty years into law, which includes actions that will save lives. But there is much more work to do, and I'm not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence," Biden said.
The legislation passed after 15 Republican senators worked out an agreement with Democrats.
The legislation includes the following:
Funds for states to implement red flag laws
Family mental health spending
Getting rid of the so-called "boyfriend loophole" by including those convicted of domestic abuse in background checks
Funding for school-based mental health programs
Funding for school safety resources
Clarifying the language of a federally licensed firearm dealer
Investments in telehealth programs
Implementing a waiting period on gun purchases for those under age 21
Penalties for straw purchases of firearms