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US President Joe Biden pleaded with lawmakers Thursday to address the country’s epidemic of gun violence, calling for a ban on assault weapons like those used in recent massacres in Texas and New York. Biden delivered the 17-minute speech, his latest call for tougher gun laws, with 56 lighted candles arrayed along a long corridor behind him to represent US states and territories affected by gun violence.
“How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” the president asked in his speech, which he delivered angrily, almost whispering at times.
“We can’t fail the American people again,” he said, calling a majority of Republican senators’ refusal to support tougher laws “unconscionable.”
Biden suggested that lawmakers raise the age at which assault weapons can be purchased from 18 to 21, as a first step toward reducing the rampant violence that has turned public infrastructure into “killing fields.”
He also urged them to take steps such as strengthening background checks, prohibiting high-capacity magazines, mandating safe firearm storage, and holding gun manufacturers accountable for crimes committed with their products.
“More school-age children have been killed by guns in the last two decades than on-duty police officers and active military personnel combined. Consider that, “Biden stated.
While Congressional Republicans have largely opposed tougher gun laws, a bipartisan group of US senators met Thursday to discuss a package of firearms controls.
Nine senators are meeting this week to debate a response to the shooting incidents that have shocked the country, and they are optimistic about the prospects for modest reforms.
The organisation has focused on school safety, improving mental health services, and providing incentives for nations to grant courts “red flag” authority to temporarily disable guns from owners deemed a threat – a step that Biden also advocated for in his remarks.
While lawmakers debated how to respond to the racist murder of ten Black supermarket shoppers in Buffalo and the Texas school shooting that killed 19 children and educators, another attack occurred in Oklahoma on Wednesday.
A man wielding a pistol and a rifle murdered two doctors, a receptionist, and a patient in a Tulsa hospital complex before committing suicide as police arrived.
Lawmakers are aware that the urgency for reforms sparked by the killings is fading, and a smaller group of senators is carrying parallel discussions on universal background checks on gun sales.
The political difficulty of legislating in a 50-50 Senate, where the most bills require 60 votes to pass, makes more comprehensive reforms unrealistic.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that senators were attempting to “target the problem,” which he described as “mental illness and school safety” instead of the availability of guns.
Nonetheless, House Democrats are poised to pass the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” which would raise the purchasing age for quasi rifles from 18 to 21 and prohibit the use of high-capacity magazines.
The bill is expected to pass the Democratic-led Residence next week before dying in the Senate due to Republican opposition.
Because federal regulation is so difficult, an effort is also currently under way among state legislatures to push for stricter gun laws.
In the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting, California lawmakers advanced a gun control package that included proposals to subject gun manufacturers to civil legal liability in certain cases.
