WASHINGTON — President Biden on Saturday signed into law a bipartisan gun bill intended to prevent dangerous people from accessing firearms and invest in mental health across the country, breaking through years of stalemate over whether to toughen the nation’s gun laws.
Mr. Biden signed the bill a day after it cleared the House, and two days after it passed the Senate, where a small bipartisan group of senators labored to reach a compromise that could break a Republican filibuster, a hurdle that has long stymied any effort to change gun laws.
Passage of the legislation came one month after a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead, as the country was already reeling from a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. And while Mr. Biden acknowledged that the bill fell far short of the sweeping gun control measures he had pushed for, he noted that it included some long-sought priorities.
“God willing,” Mr. Biden said as he put his pen down, “it’s going to save a lot of lives.”
