Biden vows again to push for an assault weapons ban
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden spoke Thursday with the owners of an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., where five people were killed in a mass shooting, offering a sign of support as he pushes to ban assault weapons.
The president, along with first lady Jill Biden, spoke on Thanksgiving with Club Q owners Nic Grzecka and Matthew Haynes.
The Bidens “reiterated their support for the community as well as their commitment to fighting back against hate and gun violence,” the White House said in a statement.
Mr. Biden made the call from Nantucket, where he and his family are spending Thanksgiving. Speaking to reporters there earlier in the day, he said it’s “ridiculous” that the U.S. is not more regularly enforcing so-called red flag laws. Colorado has such a law, but officials there declined to say whether it could have been used in the case of the Club Q suspect.
Mr. Grzecka said he believes the targeting of a drag queen event is connected to the art form being cast in a false light in recent months by right-wing activists and politicians who complain about the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children. Even though general
acceptance of the LGBTQ community has grown, this new dynamic has fostered a dangerous climate.
“It’s different to walk down the street holding my boyfriend’s hand and getting spit at (as opposed to) a politician relating a drag queen to a groomer of their children,” Mr. Grzecka said. “I would rather be spit on in the street than the hate get as bad as where we are today.”
Mr. Grzecka, who started mopping floors and bartending at Club Q in 2003 a year after it opened, said he hopes to channel his grief and anger into figuring out how to rebuild the support system for Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ community that only Club Q had provided.
Last weekend’s shooting killed five and injured more than a dozen others. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was arrested and charged with murder and causing bodily injury in a “bias-motivated crime,” commonly referred to elsewhere as a hate crime.
Mr. Biden has said he’ll push to renew a ban on semi-automatic assault-style rifles, though it’s unlikely such legislation would garner enough Republican votes to pass in Congress.
The Colorado Springs suspect is believed to have used a semi-automatic weapon similar to an AR-15, the Associated Press reported, citing a law enforcement official.
“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick, just sick. It has no social redeeming value, zero, none. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers,” Mr. Biden said Thursday.
Asked whether he would try to take action on guns, the president said, “I’m going to try. I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.” When pressed on whether he would try to do so during the lame duck session, he said, “I’m going to do it whenever — I’ve got to make that assessment as soon as I get in and start counting the votes.”
Just days after the Colorado Springs killing, a Walmart employee opened fire with a handgun in a Chesapeake, Va., store, killing six co-workers before taking his own life.
More than 600 shootings with multiple victims have occurred this year in the U.S., according to Gun Violence Archive.