U.S. Senate passes most significant gun bill in decades in wake of mass shootings

The U.S. Senate easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill Thursday that seemed unthinkable a month ago, setting up final approval of what will be Congress’ most far-reaching response in decades to the nation’s run of brutal mass shootings.

After years of GOP procedural delays that derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms, Democrats and 15 Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable after last month’s rampages in New York and Texas. It took weeks of…