In terms of politics, Biden knows full well how the powerful arms lobby influences the debate by funding and supporting candidates who have pledged to oppose arms control measures in the U.S.
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In fact, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks campaign funding in the United States, gun rights groups spent $ 15.8 million ($ 21.7 million) alone. last year in the lobby, more than five times more than the $ 2.9 million. spent by arms control groups during the same period.
And in terms of the process, Biden is not only in charge of an equitably divided Senate, where 50 Democrats have 50 seats, 50 Republicans and Vice President Kamala Harris has the quality vote as long as there is a tie. .
There’s also the long-standing filibuster rule, which requires a super majority of 60 votes in the Senate to advance most legislation. This means that unless Democrats can find an additional 10 votes, any weapons bill that comes to the House after the House of Representatives has passed is finally doomed.
That doesn’t mean the president isn’t trying. After all, as he pointed out, new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that guns are now the number one killer of children in the United States.
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There have been 233 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone, and many of them have been carried out by gunmen under the age of 21: an age when it is illegal to buy alcohol, but somehow it is legal to buy a rifle. AR15 style semi-automatic. which can be used to kill innocent strangers.
Uvalde and Buffalo were just the latest high-profile cases. The first took place last week when an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Texas.
The latter took place 10 days earlier, when another 18-year-old gunman opened fire on a grocery store in Buffalo killing 10 people and injuring three others in a racially motivated attack.
And then Thursday (AEST), a man killed two doctors, a staff member and a patient at a doctor’s office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities said he went there to kill a doctor whom he blamed for the back pain he felt after surgery.
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Describing the horror of these events, Biden told the Americans: “Imagine being that girl, that brave girl, in Uvalde who smeared blood on the body of his murdered friend in the face to stay. she stands among the corpses in her classroom and pretends to be dead, to stay alive.
“Imagine how it is for so many parents to say goodbye to their children in the morning, without being sure if they will return home. Unfortunately, too many people should not imagine it at all. “
In a flash of hope, Biden’s speech came amid bipartisan talks between a small group of senators seeking to advance modest arms reforms.
One of the bills under discussion would be to extend criminal background checks to gun buyers on the Internet and at gun shows, where many weapons are bought and sold, and would give the FBI more time to investigate suspicious gun buyers.
Another proposal focuses on giving states financial incentives to implement the red-flag laws that Biden wants, which would help ensure that weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.
And as the Senate struggles to reach an agreement, House Democrats continue with their own arms security package: raising the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic weapon; they require safer storage of weapons; prohibiting the purchase of new “bump stocks”: devices that allow a shooter to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single trigger pressure.
It remains to be seen if they are a genuine change. For now, just wait. After all, as Biden asked the nation again tonight, “How many more butchers are we willing to accept? How many more innocent lives must be taken before we say enough?”
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