U.S. senators strike initial agreement to address gun violence

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators announced Sunday a framework for potential legislation on gun safety, in response to recent mass shootings in parts of the country.

The outline includes measured gun curbs and bolstered efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.

"Our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans," the group, led by Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican John Cornyn, said in a statement. "We look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing our commonsense proposal into law."

The proposal falls short of tougher steps long sought by President Joe Biden and many Democrats.

But if the accord leads to the enactment of legislation, it would signal a turn from years of firearm killings that have yielded little but stalemate in Congress.

Leaders in the Senate hope to push any agreement into law quickly — possibly this month — on the heels of the deadly mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., at a Tops supermarket and in Uvalde, Texas, at an elementary school, as well as other mass gun killings. 

The agreement was announced a day after tens of thousands of people in Washington, D.C., and at hundreds of other places across the United States rallied to demand that lawmakers pass legislation aimed at curbing gun violence.

More to come