NAACP calls bipartisan gun safety bill ‘a step in the right direction’

The NAACP said on Tuesday it’s encouraged by the recently released Senate bipartisan gun safety legislation, saying the bill is “a step in the right direction.” 

“We are encouraged with the outcome of the bipartisan effort. This bill will save lives and we urge Congress to bring it to the President’s desk promptly,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

“When school children, churchgoers and grocery store shoppers are being gunned-down, the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good,” Johnson said. “This bill is a step in the right direction, and any step in the right direction is a step we must take.” 

Johnson added that the fight to save innocent lives from gun violence will continue. 

“The fight to save innocent lives from gun violence will and must continue beyond this bill,” the organization’s president said. 

The bipartisan legislation will fund safety measures for schools, expanded background checks for buyers under the age of 21, incentives for states to implement their own red flag laws and new protections for domestic violence victims. 

The bill, which came in response to the recent string of mass shootings in the U.S., including at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., is expected to pass in the Senate, as 10 GOP lawmakers already signed off on the framework of the legislation.