Angry Biden wants action on gun laws
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has pleaded with politicians to take action on gun violence plaguing the country, calling for a ban on assault weapons such as those used in recent massacres in Texas and New York State.
Mr Biden on Friday made the 17-minute address – his latest appeal for tougher firearms laws – with 56 lit candles arrayed along a long corridor behind him, representing all the US states and territories.
“How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” the president asked in the speech, which he delivered with anger in his voice, and at times dipping close to a whisper.
“We can’t fail the American people again,” he said, condemning the refusal of a majority of Republican senators to support tougher laws as “unconscionable”.
At a minimum, Mr Biden said, politicians should raise the age at which assault weapons can be purchased from 18 to 21, one measure to help curb rampant violence that has turned schools and hospitals into “killing fields”.
He also urged them to take steps including strengthening background checks, banning high-capacity magazines, mandating safe storage of firearms, and allowing gun manufacturers to be held liable for crimes committed with their products.
“Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than onduty police officers and active duty military combined. Think about that,” he said.
Mr Biden highlighted the story of a young student who smeared a dead classmate’s blood on herself to hide from a gunman at a Texas elementary school, saying: “Imagine what it would be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again.”
While Republican politicians have largely resisted tougher gun laws, saying mental illness was the problem, not availability of guns, a cross-party group of US senators held talks on Friday on a package of firearms controls.
Nine senators have been meeting this week to discuss a response to the mass shootings that have appalled the nation, projecting optimism over the prospects for modest reforms. The group has focused on school security, bolstering mental health services and incentives for states to grant courts “red flag” authority to temporarily remove guns from owners considered a threat – a measure Mr Biden also called for in his remarks.
A smaller group of senators is holding parallel discussions on expanding background checks on gun sales.
Even as politicians were mulling a response to the murders in Buffalo and Texas, another attack took place in Oklahoma. A man with a pistol and a rifle murdered two doctors, a receptionist and a patient in a Tulsa hospital.
Politicians are aware that they risk wasting momentum as the urgency for reforms sparked by the killings dissipates. The political challenge of legislating in a 50-50 Senate, where most bills require 60 votes to pass, means that more wide-ranging reforms are unrealistic.
House Democrats are nevertheless set to pass a broad but symbolic act, which calls for raising the purchasing age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 and a ban on high-capacity magazines. The package will likely pass the Democrat-led House next week before dying amid Republican Senate opposition.