Vox Sentences - NATO vs. China

The Senate takes up the gun violence debate again; the US and Europe look to take action on China.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg.

• After a mass shooting Monday in Boulder, Colorado, killed 10 people, Congress is once again debating how to curb the gun violence epidemic that affects the United States far more than other developed countries. [USA Today / Matthew Brown and Savannah Behrmann]
• The House, in which Democrats have a narrow majority, passed two gun reform bills earlier this month before the mass shootings in Atlanta last week and Boulder this week. Eight Republicans joined all but one Democrat in voting for the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021. [ABC News / Michelle Stoddart]
• The bill would expand background checks for all firearm sales and transfers. A second bill, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021, passed more strictly along party lines. This bill would prohibit gun sales from being processed before a background check is complete. [CNN / Daniella Diaz and Jessica Dean]
• Both bills are unlikely to pass the Senate, despite Democrats holding the slimmest of majorities in the upper chamber. With the filibuster still in place as a tool for the minority party, the Democrats would need Republican support to pass sweeping reform. [Vox / Sean Collins]
• No developed country has anywhere near as big a problem with mass shootings and gun violence. The US has nearly four times as many homicides by firearm per million people as any other advanced country, according to 2012 numbers from the Human Development Index. [Vox / German Lopez]
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused his Democratic colleagues of “ridiculous theater” for proposing more widespread reforms like universal background checks, saying such measures would take guns from “law-abiding citizens.” [Business Insider / Sarah Al-Arshani]
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, vowed that “this Senate will be different” and will address gun violence. But a key Democratic vote, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said Tuesday that he opposes the House legislation on background checks. [AP / Mary Clare Jalonick]
• In 2013, when the Democrats held a slightly larger majority, the Senate still could not pass background check legislation after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Four Republicans supported that legislation, but four Democrats opposed it. [The Hill / Jordain Carney]
• Some Republicans, including Cruz and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, continued to push widely debunked arguments against stricter gun laws, including that Black Lives Matter and the movement to defund police are to blame for high rates of gun violence. [Mother Jones / Matt Cohen]