Biden on gun control: ‘Do something, do something big’
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — The grief is still suffocating, the anger still visceral, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, in this suburban Los Angeles community where a gunman stormed a dance hall and killed 11 in January. He announced fresh federal measures to curb gun violence but emotionally declared there must be more.
“Do something. Do something big,” he implored.
“I’m determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden told the families of some of the victims who were in the audience for his remarks, along with the 26-year-old who wrestled the semiautomatic pistol away from the gunman.
Biden’s rhetoric has grown ever stronger about guns — he routinely calls for banning assault weapons — in pushing a gun-control platform even tougher than during the Obama administration when he was vice president. He has been emboldened by the midterm elections when his regular talk of gun control didn’t result in massive Democratic losses, and he’s expected to continue to argue for strong changes as he moves toward a 2024 reelection run, his aides say.
“We remember and mourn today,” Biden said in Monterey Park. “But I’m here with you today to act.”
The president told the crowd he’d signed an executive order aimed at stiffening background checks to buy guns, promoting more secure firearms storage and ensuring law enforcement agencies get more out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer.
But Biden has only limited power to go beyond that legislation that was passed after the killings of 10 shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.
His action on Tuesday does not change government policy. Rather, it directs federal agencies to ensure compliance with existing laws and procedures — a typical feature of executive orders issued by presidents when they confront the limits of their own power to act without cooperation from Congress.
“Let’s be clear, none of this absolves Congress from the responsibility of acting to pass universal background checks, to eliminate gun manufacturers immunity to liability,” Biden said.
Using emotion to press Congress to act, he detailied the lives of Monterey Park victims: A dancehall manager who walked patrons to their cars after lessons. An adventurer ready for the next trip abroad. A devoted grandparent.
Biden, whose own familiarity with grief is well known — his small daughter and wife were killed in a car crash in the 1970s and later his adult son died of cancer — touched on the everyday things he said hurt so much after the initial shock is gone; the way a closet still smells like a loved one, the sound of a laugh, the bend of a smile.
The victims in Monterey Park, where 20 were shot after Lunar New Year celebrations, were older Asian Americans, mostly in their 60s and 70s. Biden said they represented a powerful vision of America: “Our diversity is the strength of this nation.”
His order on Tuesday directs the Cabinet to complete a plan to better structure the government to support communities suffering from gun violence. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency can respond to natural disasters to provide on-the-ground support, the government should be able to do the same for a mass shooting, he said. More mental health support for grief and trauma, financial aid for victims and for businesses forced to close during a lengthy police investigations.
He is directing Attorney General Merrick Garland to shore up rules for federally licensed gun dealers so they know they are required to do background checks as part of their licenses.
He is also mandating better reporting of ballistics data from federal law enforcement for a clearinghouse that allows federal, state and local law enforcement to match shell casings to guns. But local and state law enforcement agencies are not required to report ballistics data, and many do not, making the clearinghouse less effective.