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The House Judiciary Committee passed a measure Wednesday that would require background checks for all gun sales and most gun transfers within the United States, the most significant gun-control legislation to advance this far in Congress in years. The committee spent more than nine hours debating the bill before voting 21 to 14 to advance it Wednesday night. Next, it will face a vote on the House floor. The measure was among the first actions taken by the newly elected Democratic majority, which pledged to make gun control a top issue. The bill also has the support of at least five Republicans, a rare feat given the issue often has cleaved along party lines. (Zezima, 2/13)

The Judiciary Committee approved two bills that would expand federal background checks for firearm purchases. The legislation, which now heads to the House floor but stands virtually no chance in the Senate, makes good on Democrats’ promises to move swiftly to combat gun violence since taking control of the chamber this year. “There is a clear consensus among academics, public health experts and law enforcement personnel that universal background checks would greatly enhance public safety,” said Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). “Despite the obvious need to take action, however, Congress, for too long has done virtually nothing.” (Stratford, 2/13)

Legislatures around the country have passed dozens of bills to address gun violence in the year since the 17 people died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Many of the new laws already in effect added restrictions on owning a firearm. (Cotorno, 2/13)

On Feb. 14, 2018, a former student slaughtered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The next day, David Hogg, a student who survived the attack, expressed his frustration at the pattern of political inaction that seems to follow mass shootings in the United States. He was not surprised that there had been another school shooting, he said, and that fact alone “says so much about the current state that our country is in, and how much has to be done.” “We need to do something,” he said. In the course of the next year, students would change the way the nation handles mass shootings, spurring new gun legislation and school safety measures, and holding to account the adults they felt had failed them. (Kramer and Harlan, 2/13)

Psychologist John Van Dreal has spent almost 30 years working with troubled kids. Still, it's always unsettling to get the kind of phone call he received one morning eight years ago as he was on his way to a meeting. "I got a call from the assistant principal at North [Salem] High, reporting that a student had made some threats on the Internet," remembers Van Dreal, the director of safety and risk management for Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Salem, Ore. (Chatterjee and Davis, 2/13)