(Bloomberg) -- The House passed bipartisan gun-safety legislation Friday, sending it to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

The bill, considered the most significant move on guns in 30 years, follows massacres last month in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. The vote was 234-193, with 14 Republicans voting with Democrats despite pressure from House GOP leaders to oppose it.

The House vote came the day after the Supreme Court struck down a New York law that required people to show a special need to carry a handgun in public, ruling for the first time that the Second Amendment protects gun rights outside the home. The dueling actions, occurring across the street from one another, underscore the deep divisions that remain in the country on gun policy. 

The legislation includes funding for mental health services and school safety, grants for states to develop red flag laws or crisis intervention programs and incentives to expand background checks for gun buyers ages 18 to 21.

The bill also closes the “boyfriend loophole” which would prohibit dating partners convicted of domestic abuse from buying guns. However, a person convicted of a misdemeanor could be allowed to buy a gun again after five years.

“All of us who have met with survivors in the wake of the tragedies have heard their messages loud and clear,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. “Today in their honor we heed their powerful cry, sending the major gun violence prevention legislation to President Biden’s desk for signature.”

The bill also includes federal criminal penalties for individuals who make straw purchases and traffic guns for crime or those who evade licensing requirements.

Biden has said he will sign the bill into law.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP. The group filed a brief at the Supreme Court supporting the New York restrictions.

The Senate passed the bill on a 65-33 vote Thursday night after weeks of negotiations sparked by the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings that left a total of 31 people dead.

The negotiations were led by Democratic Senators Chris Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema and GOP Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. 

The House passed a more expansive gun package earlier this month that included raising the minimum age to own semiautomatic rifles and a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines. But many of those provisions did not have the necessary support of Senate Republicans.

The legislation had the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called it a commonsense package. But many House GOP lawmakers argued the legislation would infringe on Second Amendment rights.

“Today they are coming after Americans, law abiding American citizens’ second amendment liberties,” Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio said Thursday. 

 

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