Biden signs bipartisan gun safety bill into law: 'God willing, it's going to save a lot of lives'

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law the first major federal gun safety legislation passed in decades, marking a significant bipartisan breakthrough on one of the most contentious policy issues in Washington.

"God willing, it's going to save a lot of lives," Biden said at the White House as he finished signing the bill.

The legislation came together in the aftermath of recent mass shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. A bipartisan group of negotiators set to work in the Senate and unveiled legislative text on Tuesday. The bill -- titled the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act -- was released by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

The House on Friday passed the bill by 234-193, including 14 Republicans voting with Democrats. The Senate passed the bill in a late-night vote Thursday.

Trial for 2 former officers charged in George Floyd's murder rescheduled again

The trial for the two former Minneapolis police officers charged in connection with George Floyd's murder has been rescheduled, again. 

The state trial of Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, who are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter in Floyd's May 2020 death, was rescheduled to Oct. 24 from Jan. 9, 2023. 

Judge Peter Cahill made this decision after prosecutors made a request for a speedy trial on behalf of Floyd's family. The state argued the family wants closure to the legal process and doesn't want the trial delayed any further. Kueng's attorney, in response to prosecutors' request for a speedy trial, had filed a motion for a continuance, seeking to push the start of his trial back to after April 3, 2023, citing Kueng being unavailable from January-March 2023 "due a scheduling conflict of a personal nature."

This is not the first time their trail has been moved. Their trial was originally scheduled to start on June 13 after being postponed from March of this year. But earlier this month, Cahill pushed back the start of their trial to Jan. 9, 2023. This came after Thao and Kueng filed motions to delay the start of their state trial and get it moved out of Minneapolis. The motion to move the trial was denied in early June, but the court granted their request for a continuance, listing pre-trial publicity from Thomas Lane's plea deal in May and the federal civil rights trial in February. 

Why more Black people are looking for safety in gun ownership

Two days after a white man shot and killed 10 Black people in Buffalo last month, Michael Moody reversed his thinking about possessing a firearm. He had watched the aftermath of the carnage on the news, the anguish of the victims’ families, and decided he “needed a gun. Needed, not wanted,” he said.

After discussing it with his wife, Moody said he left his home in suburban Washington to buy a weapon. He quickly learned he wasn’t alone. He said he was “stunned” at the number of Black people standing in line at the gun shop in Maryland to make a similar purchase.

Through chatting with others while waiting, Moody said he learned “a lot of us have the same idea. It’s getting bad when someone specifically targets Black people to shoot. We have to be prepared to fight back. And you can’t survive bringing a knife to a gunfight.”

Moody’s sentiments represent one reason the sale of guns to Black Americans rose 58 percent in 2020 — the year George Floyd was murdered by a Minnesota police officer, sparking a nationwide social justice movement — according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade association. It was the highest bump in gun sales of any ethnic group that year.

White House to be lit orange for gun violence awareness

The White House will be illuminated in orange Friday night in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day, as the nation has been shaken by a recent string of deadly mass shootings.

The White House's north facade will be bathed in orange light from Friday at sunset until 1:30 a.m. ET Saturday.

Several other government buildings -- including California's Capitol dome and City Hall in New York City -- will also be lit up in orange over the weekend.

The eighth annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day comes as people in the US are reeling from a spate of mass shootings in the last month, including at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a supermarket in the heart of a Black community in Buffalo, New York and a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma.