Biden meets with UNLV, community members affected by shooting, calls for action on guns

President Joe Biden made a stop Friday in Las Vegas to personally express condolences to some of those affected by Wednesday’s fatal shooting at UNLV and to again call for more action to prevent gun violence.

Ahead of Friday’s event at the Carpenters International Training Center in Las Vegas to tout $3 billion in federal funding for a high-speed rail project between Las Vegas and Southern California, the president met with UNLV students and community members.

Biden opened his remarks by thanking first responders for their heroics and said he was grieving “yet another” act of gun violence. He also noted the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival on the Strip — which remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history — still remains fresh in the mind of many Nevadans.

“This is not normal, and we can never let it become normal,” Biden said. “People have the right to feel safe, be safe, and I’m fighting to make sure they do. But all these actions I’ve taken as president of the United States to end this gun violence epidemic is not enough. We need Congress to step up.”

The shooting Wednesday at UNLV left three faculty members dead and a fourth hospitalized in stable condition, authorities said.

The gunman, identified by Metro Police as 67-year-old Anthony Politi of Henderson, was killed in a gun battle with UNLV Police detectives outside the university’s business school.

“I’m grateful law enforcement risked their lives and safety in that shooting spree,” Biden continued. “You saved lives.”

The five Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation accompanied Biden and told attendees it was time to take action.

“What happened on the campus, it’s a tragedy,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-nev., said. “It was senseless. And I’m eternally grateful to the brave responders that stopped it from being a worse tragedy. We are forever in their debt (and) their actions saved countless lives.”

At Biden’s direction, federal law enforcement personnel are working with local authorities and providing “all necessary assistance,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-pierre told pool reporters before Friday’s event. That includes using the newly established Office of Gun Violence Prevention to coordinate federal resources to help survivors of the shooting.

Jean-pierre noted that the shooting at UNLV came less than 24 hours after a separate mass shooting that killed six people in San Antonio, Texas.

“We know it’s not just the victims and survivors who need support, but this violence rips apart entire communities,” Jean-pierre said.

Rosen, along with fellow Nevada Democrats Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford, said they had come to Friday’s event after attending the funeral of Trooper Alberto Felix — one of the two Nevada State Police troopers killed while assisting a motorist on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas last week when they were struck by a suspected drunk driver. They urged Nevadans to come together in these difficult times.

“We know that Las Vegas is strong and we come together as a community,” Lee said. “We rebuild and we survive and we come out better than before.”