WASHINGTON – President Biden on Thursday demanded that lawmakers respond to communities turned into “assassination camps” by approving far-reaching limits on weapons, and called on Congress to ban assault weapons, extend controls on background and pass “red flag” laws after massacres in Texas and New York.
In a rare nightly speech in the nation, Mr. Biden dared Republicans to ignore the repeated convulsions of anger and pain of gun violence, continuing to block gun measures backed by large majorities on both sides. and even among gun owners.
“My God,” he said from the Cross Hall, a ceremonial part of the White House residence, which was lined with candles in honor of victims of armed violence. “The fact that most of the Republicans in the Senate do not want any of these proposals, not even to be debated or put to the vote, seems unacceptable to me. We can’t fail the American people again. “
Mr Biden’s speech came a day after a mass shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which killed four people and nine days after a massacre in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 primary school children. and two teachers. Ten days earlier, 10 blacks were killed on the scales at a grocery store in Buffalo. The list, Mr Biden said, continues.
“After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done,” he said, lamenting decades of inaction.
With a 17-minute speech, Mr Biden abruptly dispelled his White House’s reluctance to take part in what could become another fruitless partisan confrontation, held amid funerals in Uvalde, Buffalo and Tulsa. After weeks of carefully calibrating his calls to action, the president on Thursday did not hold back.
“Enough, enough. It’s time for each of us to do our part, “he told Americans. “It simply came to our notice then. For children we can save. For the nation we love. “
“We hear the call and shout,” he said, almost pleading with his fellow politicians in Washington. “It simply came to our notice then. We are finally doing something. “
It is unclear if this will happen. Despite his strong tone, Mr Biden acknowledged in his speech the political realities that could make him another of a long line of presidents who have demanded action on arms, to fail. He called the fight “tough” and, moments after calling for a ban on assault weapons, offered alternatives if that proved impossible.
“If we can’t ban assault weapons, we should raise the age to buy them from 18 to 21, strengthen background checks,” he said. He called on Congress to “enact safe storage laws and red flag laws, repeal the immunity that protects weapons manufacturers from liability, address the mental health crisis.”
In his remarks, Biden turned his obvious cynicism about Republicans into a kind of political threat, saying that “if Congress fails, I think this time the majority of the American people will not give up either. I think most of you will act to turn your outrage into the center of your vote. “
Mr Biden is not a newcomer to the arms debate.
He has repeatedly said he is in favor of reinstating the ban on assault weapons that he helped pass as a senator and that was law for a decade before it expired in 2004. He has called on lawmakers to pass universal ‘background for a decade, since 20 children were murdered. in a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
But both measures are considered unlikely to pass in Congress, where there has historically been fierce Republican opposition. Lawmakers from both parties have recently said they do not believe there is enough bipartisan support to approve any approach.
House Democrats on Thursday advanced a comprehensive package of gun control laws that would ban the sale of semi-automatic rifles to people under the age of 21 and ban the sale of magazines containing more than 10 rounds of ammunition. But those measures were also almost certain to die in the Senate.
Democrats introduced legislation in response to the Uvalde killings and the racist massacre in Buffalo, both according to police at the hands of 18-year-old gunmen using legally acquired AR-15-style weapons.
A bitterly divided House Judiciary Committee passed the bill on Thursday and passed it on Thursday evening, with a 25 to 19 vote in favor of the party.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned that another shooting was not far off. He begged the Republicans, “My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?”
Republicans mock measures such as unconstitutional attempts to take up arms by law-abiding Americans, robbing them of their right to defend themselves. Rep. Dan Bishop, a North Carolina Republican, expressed outrage that Democrats had portrayed Republicans as complicit in the mass shootings, saying, “You will not be harassed for stripping the fundamental rights of Americans.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said government officials had been in close contact with lawmakers in recent days as a bipartisan group of senators discussed a tighter set of limits on the ownership of weapons.
Negotiations have focused on expanding background checks and providing incentives for states to pass red-flag laws that allow dangerous people to confiscate weapons. The group is also examining proposals on safe storage of weapons at home, community violence and mental health, according to aides and senators involved in the talks.
With Republicans unanimously opposed to most major arms control measures, Senate talks offer what is likely to be the best opportunity to find a bipartisan arms deal that the Senate can approve from 50 to 50, where they need 60 votes to break a deadlock and bring legislation to a vote.
But the effort faces long odds, with little evidence that either side is willing to give way in a debate that has stalled for years.
Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut is leading the talks for Democrats, along with fellow party members Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Republican senators with him include Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Susan Collins of Maine.
These nine negotiators met at Zoom on Wednesday to discuss their progress, meeting for an hour after days of individual phone calls and smaller meetings between themselves and their peers. Talks were expected to continue before the Senate returns early next week.
“We’re moving fast toward a common-sense package that could gain the support of both Republicans and Democrats,” Collins said in a brief statement after the meeting.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a close ally of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, also took part in the talks, including a Tuesday meeting with Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Cinema and Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina.
Democratic leaders have warned that if an agreement cannot be reached quickly, they will force the vote on bills in the House, which do not have Republican support, to show Americans which legislators are preventing security measures from being passed. of weapons.
“I’m clear on the history of failure,” Mr. Blumenthal in an interview after Wednesday’s meeting. “But if there’s ever a moment to shut up or shut up, this is it.”
In the days immediately following the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings, both President and Vice President Kamala Harris remained largely out of any direct negotiations with lawmakers on how to create a response to the shootings that could happen in Congress.
But on Thursday, Mr Biden abandoned that approach and decided instead to put a marker that would cement his legacy as president who fought tougher gun laws, successful or not.
In his Thursday speech, Biden described the deep pain he experienced when he and his wife spoke to the families of the victims of the two mass shootings.
“In both places, we spent hours with hundreds of broken family members, whose lives will never be the same,” he said. “They had a message for all of us: do something. Just do something. For God’s sake, do something.”
“How many more butchers are we willing to accept?” he asked. “How many more innocent American lives should be taken before you say, ‘Enough. Enough.’
And he made clear the purpose of his comment, saying that it is now up to Congress to pass far-reaching laws that have been denied in the past.
“The question now is, what will Congress do?” He said. The president said he supported the bipartisan group’s efforts in the Senate to find a compromise, but said it was the least that lawmakers should do.
Thursday night’s approach was more akin to former President Barack Obama’s response in January 2013, just weeks after the shooting at the Newtown school.
Mr. Obama, flanked by Mr. Biden, then vice president, proposed a package of arms control measures, which include: making sure all gun owners go through a background check; improve the state reporting of criminals and the mentally ill; ban on assault weapons; and limiting the capacity of the magazine clip to 10 bullets.
In the face of Republican opposition, Mr. Obama abandoned his demand for a ban on assault weapons and limits tailored to magazine clips. After months of pressure from Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, the Senate rejected a bipartisan effort to expand on background checks.
In scathing comments after the death of the bill, Mr. Obama ridiculed senators for deciding that children’s lives were not worth the effort to pass legislation. A decade later, Mr. Obama …