President Joe Biden made a fervent appeal Thursday for stricter gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons, tougher background check laws, and a higher minimum age of purchase, as a spate of gun massacres has left the nation shaken and sparked new discussions on Capitol Hill about how to prevent them. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke from the White House’s Cross Hall, where mournful lines of candles had been lit as an eerie backdrop.
“How much more bloodshed are we prepared to put up with?” After bidding adieu to Republican obstructionism on gun control measures, Biden made his request.
Obama’s plea for more gun regulation was his strongest since deadly killings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York in recent months. In his speech, Vice President Biden sought to simultaneously inspire action and warn opponents of new gun legislation with the fury of the majority of the American people, who support some new action to avoid mass murders.
Biden encouraged Congress to extend background checks for gun
Additionally, Vice President Biden encouraged Congress to extend background checks for gun transactions, adopt new restrictions for gun storage, enact “red flag” laws to prohibit gun sales to criminals, eliminate liability shields for gun makers, and offer more mental health assistance for kids.There is currently a bipartisan committee of senators deciding where action might be possible in the evenly divided Senate, but most of those things are unlikely to get the go-ahead.
Even so, Biden sought to seize the opportunity presented by a nation shaken by a seemingly endless string of murders to mobilize support for a proposal that the majority of Republicans oppose.
An unusual evening address intended to reach as many people as possible ended with Biden declaring, “My God, I find reprehensible, the fact that the majority of Senate Republicans don’t want any of these measures to even be debated or put up for a vote.”
After That, He Said We Can’t Fail the American People.
Sixty-six candles glowed behind him in memory of the people killed by firearms in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In the wake of last week’s school shooting in Texas, this was Vice President Biden’s most forceful statement to date on the issue of gun control. It’s time for the nation to take action to avoid future mass shootings by enacting stricter gun laws, he said.
According to Biden, after seeing grieving relatives in Buffalo and Uvalde, they made it obvious to him: “Do something.” “Nothing has been done,” Biden stated. “That’s not going to be the case this time around. We can’t just sit here and talk about it anymore; we have to take something now.” As of Wednesday, the Tulsa incident was the most recent in a succession of mass shootings that had occurred around the country since the Uvalde shooting on September 14. There were five fatalities, including the gunman, in this shooting.
Vice President Biden delivered an emotional evening statement at the White House
In the wake of the Robb Elementary School tragedy, Vice President Biden delivered an emotional evening statement at the White House. While Biden has taken a more active role in the discussion on gun control since the Sandy Hook shooting, he has not supported any specific legislation to avoid further violence.
Assault-weapon purchase age should be raised from 18 to 21 if legislators cannot agree on an outright prohibition, he said Thursday, according to a statement he made. Minimum age of 21 should be required to purchase one of these devices, President Trump suggested.
“Let us hear the call and the cry for the children we have lost, the children we can save, and the nation we love. Take advantage of the occasion. Let’s finally get something accomplished.” Even though Vice President Joe Biden and his aides say they’ve exhausted all of their executive action options on gun control, they’re still looking at other options.
Within 24 hours after his visit to Texas, Vice President Joe Biden spoke to grieving families in the state and expressed some skepticism about the possibility that Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Texas Senator John Cornyn would change their minds about gun control.
Talks on legislation to prevent mass shootings have been delegated to Cornyn by McConnell, but the conversations are still in their infancy. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said he and Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, are discussing modifications to red flag regulations and that there is still “substantial” work to be done.
Known as red flag laws, senators are considering ways to make it easier for law enforcement to take weapons away from those they believe pose a threat. Negotiators are “all communicating numerous times a day,” according to Blumenthal, who termed the talks “constructive and encouraging.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will bring legislation to the House floor next week to ban military-style assault rifles as part of the chamber’s effort to curb gun violence. Thursday’s developments have been incorporated into this story.