Biden: How much more carnage?
President’s plea for stricter gun laws
“Enough, enough,” US President Joe Biden exclaimed over and over yesterday, as he delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into “killing fields”.
If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their “outrage” to turn it into a central issue in November’s midterm elections.
Speaking at the White House, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks.
He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines — and said if Congress won’t embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21.
“How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden asked after last week’s shootings by an 18-yearold gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack on Thursday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office.
“Don’t tell me raising the age won’t make a difference,” the President said.
The most recent shootings came close on the heels of the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a mainly black neighbourhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as “racially motivated violent extremism”.
“This time we have to take the time to do something,” the United States leader said, calling out the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to pass legislation.
For all the passion of Biden’s address, any major action by Congress is still a long shot.
“I know how hard it is, but I’ll never give up, and, if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people won’t give up either,” he added. “I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote.” Adding a stark perspective to young people’s deaths, he noted that Centres for Disease Control data shows “guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America”, ahead of car crashes.
“Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military — combined,” he said. Aware of persistent criticism from gun-rights advocates, Biden insisted his appeal wasn’t about “vilifying gun owners” or “taking away anybody’s guns”.
“This isn’t about taking away anyone’s rights, it’s about protecting children, it’s about protecting families.” He called on Congress to end “outrageous” protections for gun manufacturers, which severely limit their liability over how their firearms are used, comparing it to the tobacco industry, which has faced repeated litigation over its products’ role in causing cancer and other diseases. “Imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where we’d be today.”
Biden’s address coincided with bipartisan talks that are intensifying among a core group of senators discussing modest gun policy changes.
It comes as New York’s legislature voted yesterday to ban anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle, a major change to state firearm laws pushed through less than three weeks after an 18-year-old used one of the guns to kill 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo.
The bill raising the age limit is the most significant part of a package of gun control measures announced earlier this week by Democratic legislative leaders and Governor Kathy Hochul.
Other new legislation will restrict civilian purchases of bullet-resistant armour, which was worn by the killer in Buffalo, and require new guns to be equipped with microstamping technology that can help law enforcement investigators trace bullets to particular firearms.
Gun violence
Since the devastating attack on a school in Texas last week, mass shootings around the US have been coming at a pace of more than two a day — 20 happened over just nine days, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
Just yesterday two people and a shooter died in a shooting outside a church in Ames, Iowa, while two people were shot at a cemetery south of Milwaukee.
Police said multiple shots were fired in the direction of a funeral service. A juvenile was treated and released and a second person was flown to a hospital.
In Iowa a man killed two females outside the Cornerstone Church, a megachurch on the outskirts of Ames.
Police said the shooter appeared to have then shot himself but his death is still being investigated.
On Thursday a shooting at an Oklahoma medical office was carried out by a man who blamed his surgeon for continuing pain following an operation on his back.
Michael Louis, 45, fatally shot Dr Preston Phillips and three other people in Tulsa before killing himself.
Police said Louis had been calling the clinic repeatedly complaining of pain and that he specifically targeted Phillips, who had performed his surgery.
Doctors have been increasingly threatened with or become victims of violence by patients complaining of pain, especially in recent years when they have prescribed alternatives to opioids and tapered patients off addictive painkillers.
Over the last two decades, more schoolage children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military — combined.
US President Joe Biden