A month and a half after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, President Joe Biden has signed a groundbreaking — if modest — gun control bill. With gun violence now the leading cause of death of children and teenagers, the law has been rightly praised for breaking decades of deadlock on gun legislation.
The new law will expand mental health services in community behavioral health centers and schools throughout the country, something long sought by mental health and education advocates. It will enhance background checks for those under 21 years old, tighten the “boyfriend loophole” to make it harder for people with histories of domestic violence to own guns and give more federal funding to states that voluntarily adopt “red flag” laws, which restrict potentially dangerous people from buying guns. And more gun sellers will now be required to register as federally licensed firearms dealers, a move that will hopefully decrease gun trafficking.
These provisions are a floor, not ceiling, for what’s really needed. And they were worth passing. But there’s one provision that could cause more harm than good.
