Biden Hails Passage Of Bipartisan Gun Control Bill, Urges More Action From Congress
President Joe Biden hailed the recent passage of a bipartisan gun control bill as a first step towards what he hopes will be further action to reduce gun violence after a summer marred by numerous mass shootings.
Appearing before the White House on Monday, Biden praises Congress for taking action on gun control and said the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act "finally moved that mountain" to reform the nation's firearms laws. As a next step, Biden insisted that Congress needs to do more to make a difference in saving more lives from gun violence.
"Make no mistake about it, this legislation is real progress, but more has to be done. The provision of this new legislation is going to save lives, and it's proof that in today's politics, we can come together on a bipartisan basis to get important things done, even on an issue as tough as guns," Biden said in his speech.
At one point in his speech, a parent of one of the victims of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Manuel Olivier, heckled Biden, who asked that he "sit down" and let him finish his speech. Olivier, who had earlier appeared on CNN, called the bipartisan bill "not enough" to prevent future shootings.
On June 24, Congress voted to pass the first major gun safety bill in nearly three decades. The bill includes enhancements to background checks for younger buyers, funding for states that are implementing "red flag" laws and more investments into the tracking down of "straw buyers" of guns for those ineligible to acquire them.
The bill followed the racially motivated massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 that left 10 dead. It was followed by a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, 10 days later that killed 22 people.
In the days after Biden signed the bill into law, the nation has been wracked by further mass shootings, including most recently one at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven and wounded 46 people.
Though Biden spoke highly of the bill, he cautioned that it was not enough on its own to stop future shootings. He reiterated that Congress must act to ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and strengthen background checks further. The odds of any of these happening are long given divided control of the Senate and upcoming midterm elections that Republicans are favored to win.
But despite these limits, supporters of gun control measures took to Twitter to praise the administration and Congress for finally taking some steps to curb gun violence through legislation. Kris Brown, President of the gun-control group Brady United, thanked Biden for signing the bill into law, calling it the "strongest gun violence prevention law in 30 years."
"TY, @WhiteHouse. And thank you to the millions of Americans who are demanding action," tweeted Brown, who attended the event at the White House.
Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action, also praised the decision and described Biden as a “champion on gun control." St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, a member of Mayors Against Gun Violence, called the bill an "important step towards [making] our neighborhoods safer."
However, pro-gun groups also spoke out against the bill as well as Biden’s proposals for future gun control measures. In a series of tweets, Gun Owner of America said that Biden was in fact proposing what they claimed to be warning about for some time.
The group also singled out Republican senators who backed the new bill, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas., who led the Republican side’s negotiations, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who backed the bill.
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