Setting gridlock aside, Congress set to OK gun violence bill

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is on the verge of approving a $13 billion bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unimaginable a month ago.

House approval is expected Friday on legislation that would be lawmakers’ most sweeping answer in decades to brutal mass shootings that have come to shock yet not surprise Americans.

The Senate approved the measure Thursday, with 15 Republicans joining Democrats in backing passage.

The election-year vote was coming just weeks after gunmen massacred elementary school students and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo, New York. Lawmakers of both parties said the public outcry for action could not be ignored.