‘A Start’: Gun Deal Stirs Hope but Also Frustration in Places Scarred by Shootings

Americans in communities where lives have been forever changed by gun violence reacted to the bipartisan deal that was reached by Senate negotiators on Sunday with a glint of hope but more than a tinge of frustration.

Any agreement is better than no agreement, many indicated, yet so much more could be done.

If approved in the Senate and the House, the deal would be the first major piece of gun safety legislation to be passed by Congress in years. It includes a modest expansion of background checks for gun buyers under 21 and funding for states to enact so-called red-flag laws, which allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from those deemed dangerous. It also includes funding for mental health programs and increased school security.

Still, for many Americans in places like Buffalo; Orlando, Fla.; and Uvalde, Texas, who have seen the irrevocable toll of mass shootings, the proposed deal does not go far enough.

Leonard Sandoval, whose 10-year-old grandson, Xavier James Lopez, died at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, would like to see a ban on semiautomatic weapons.

He would also like to see more mass shooter training at the national level to prevent another disastrous police response like what appeared to have happened in Uvalde. “If they had better trained those officers and given them better equipment, maybe so many kids would not have died,” he said.