Congress moves forward on gun safety legislation with a focus on mental health

Judy Woodruff:

After weeks of mounting pressure to see action on guns, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have come to an agreement on a framework for gun legislation.

Our political correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is here with the details.

Lisa, welcome.

Lisa Desjardins:

Hi.

Judy Woodruff:

So, there does seem to be the outline of a deal. Tell us what is in this.

Lisa Desjardins:

There is a framework; 20 senators, including, notably, 10 Republicans, have signed on, as we reported yesterday.

Let's talk about what's in this with a little bit more depth. First of all, let's talk about the gun portions of this bill. In this bill, there would be a statement — there's a statement to encourage state red flag laws. Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia have those laws. Senators would like to see them in most states.

They also would have — they would close the what's called the boyfriend loophole. That is a situation where now, if someone is found convicted of domestic violence, but is not married to the person they have abused, they could still continue to own a firearm. This would change that for any kind of domestic abuse allegation like that.

Then also, there would be deeper background checks for those who are 18 to 21 years old in buying assault-style weapons. Notably, I think many of our viewers will recognize there is not a change in the age limit to buy those kinds of weapons.

But, instead, what these senators would like to do is to make available, in fact, require that records, criminal juvenile records, mental health records for juveniles, be included in that background search, which is not happening now. That's one portion.

The other portion of this bill deals with mental health and larger kind of societal problems that might lead to some of the people that commit this kind of violence. Let's talk about those portions of this bill.

In the framework, a major investment in mental health and suicide prevention across this country. Something notable, this bill aims to expand, or this framework, 24/7 community mental health centers across the country, increased access to mental health care, also specifically mental health care and trauma counseling in schools. And it would also add a large boost of school safety funding.

Now, we don't have details on this. That's why it's a framework. It's not a bill yet. We're going to have to pay close attention. But why so much emphasis on things like mental health? Not only because it's a bipartisan issue that most Americans agree on, but also because the players here.

Kyrsten Sinema, she is one of the core four who's helping usher this through. Her first job, a social worker in schools, and she still teaches social work. So she's someone who's really pushing for these mental health ideas. Also, two important figures, Roy Blunt, a Republican who has signed on to this framework, and Debbie Stabenow, it's their mental health framework that really it looks like they have been preparing for years, and now it's being adopted in this proposal.

Judy Woodruff:

So, rather than a huge, ambitious approach, this has been described as a more pragmatic one. Help us understand why that is.

Lisa Desjardins:

Something that is helping these senators reach consensus is the fact that they're looking at the profile of a certain kind of American who has been committing some of this most reprehensible violence, young men.

And when you look at the data — in fact, we looked at some of it today — you see what why senators have their attention that profile. You look at 18-to-21-year-old perpetrators of gun violence, according to The Violence Project, that is — that accounts for two-thirds of the largest mass shootings since 2018.

If you look more broadly — this according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,– they are responsible for 17 percent of all homicides. So it's helping that senators can aim this conversation in a focused way at one particular kind of perpetrator that we know is responsible for outsized amounts of gun violence.

Judy Woodruff:

So we know a lot of people are waiting to see what they do, Lisa.

What about the timing? What happens next time, and when?

Lisa Desjardins:

This is the question we all have, of course, because everyone knows the midterms are coming. The clock is not helpful to the U.S. Senate at this time.

However, this is delicate. This is a difficult situation. They don't have legislative text yet. I'm going to show you what they do have, this background proposal we're talking about. If you take a look at what it actually looks like here, it's not a large document. There are just 300 words in it. We can scroll through it.

That's it right now. This is what we're talking about, just 300 words. So what these senators still have to do is to write this into text. Essentially, Judy, think of it this way. If a group of people is trying to build a house together, they have agreed now on a photograph of a house. They have not decided things like how many bedrooms, how big should the bedrooms be, what kind of appliances in the kitchen, who should use them?

Those are all difficult questions that can add to any problems in a deal. Most of the Senate wants a deal here. But they have to figure out those tough details. I think what where we're at is, they're going to try to write this legislative text in the next two weeks. If they do it, it would be remarkable.

Here's what Chuck Schumer says about where they're at.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

For the first time in a long time, the Senate has a path forward on legislation that will save lives, reduce gun violence and keep our communities safe.

Make no mistake about it. We have a lot of work left to do before we actually pass a bill, but yesterday's announcement was a positive and necessary step in the right direction.

Lisa Desjardins:

I can imagine viewers saying, we have heard this before. We have heard positive steps before.

This is different in one way, that we did not hear from Senator McConnell on this issue today. The fact that he's not saying anything is actually a reason for hope. He is not putting a hand on the scale yet. He is not against this.

Everyone knows Republicans have been pretty quick in the past to say no to anything related to gun legislation. He's leaving an opening. But the main question, Judy, is the momentum that the Senate has now, those calls are getting from constituents, will that keep up long enough for them to finish this deal? And that, we don't know.

Judy Woodruff:

And when you say, as long as it takes to agree on how to build a house, it makes me think it could go on for a long time. But we will see.

Lisa Desjardins:

That's why we are gainfully employed.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:

For sure. And you certainly are.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:

Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.