The address will be at 7:30 pm ET from the White House Cross Hall. Biden plans to discuss “the recent tragic mass shootings and the need for Congress to act to pass common sense laws to combat the epidemic of armed violence that is taking place every day,” the White House said in announcing the speech.
The statements will be Biden’s most comprehensive speech on guns since a massacre at a Texas elementary school last week.
Since then, there have been a series of additional mass shootings in states across the country, including Wednesday at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That shooting left five dead, including the gunman.
In the hours following the Texas massacre, Biden delivered an emotional seven-minute speech at the White House, calling the repeated killings of gun Americans “sick.”
“Why? Why are we willing to live with this butchery? Why are we still letting this happen?” he asked.
Since then, however, Biden has only been selectively involved in the arms control debate, without passing any specific legislative action to prevent further carnage.
On Wednesday, the president expressed little optimism that Congress would agree on new gun control legislation, even when a bipartisan group of senators meets to assess options.
“I served in Congress for 36 years. I’m never entirely sure,” Biden said when asked if he thought lawmakers would agree to new gun laws.
“It depends. So I don’t know,” Biden said. “I haven’t been in the negotiations as they are happening now.”
The lukewarm response was an indication that Biden is wary of associating too closely with nascent Capitol Hill efforts to reach a gun control compromise.
Although Biden said on Tuesday he would talk to lawmakers about guns, the White House later said it would only get involved when the time came.
Both Biden and his advisers have suggested that they have exhausted their options for executive action to address arms, although they continue to explore avenues for unilateral action.
“There’s the Constitution. I can’t dictate these things. I can do the things I’ve done, and I can continue to take any executive action I can take. But I can’t ban a weapon, I can’t. Change background checks. I can’t. do that, “he said Monday.
Speaking a day after consoling Texas families, Biden expressed limited hope that certain Republicans, such as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and one of his main allies, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, could be persuaded to support some sort of new gun laws.
“I don’t know, I think there’s an understanding on the part of rational Republicans, and I think McConnell is a rational Republican, Cornyn too. There’s an acknowledgment on his part that they can’t go on like this,” he said.
McConnell has instructed Cornyn to start talks with Democrats on some sort of legislation to prevent further mass shootings, though discussions are still in their preliminary stages.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who attended a bipartisan arms security meeting Wednesday, said he and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham are in talks on changes to red flag laws and there is still work to be done. “important to do”.
Senators are seeking to strengthen state laws that allow authorities to take away weapons from people considered to be at risk, known as red-flag laws.
Blumenthal described the conversation as “productive and encouraging” and said the negotiators “speak several times a day”.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said next week she would bring legislation to ban military-style assault weapons as the House approaches armed violence.
This story has been updated with additional reports.