WASHINGTON-
US President Joe Biden welcomed a crowd to the White House lawn on Monday to show off a new law aimed at reducing gun violence, celebrating “real progress” after years of inaction. But he also lamented that the country remains “awash in weapons of war,” with the 16-day law already overshadowed by another horrific mass shooting.
The bill, passed after recent gun attacks in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, increasingly tightens requirements for youth to buy guns, denies guns to more domestic abusers and helps local authorities to temporarily take away weapons from people considered dangerous.
But Monday morning’s “celebration” came a week after a gunman in Highland Park, Illinois, killed seven people at an Independence Day parade, a stark reminder of the new law’s limitations on address the American phenomenon of mass gun violence. And it comes as Democratic governors have taken it upon themselves to deliver outrage over gun violence.
Biden hosted hundreds of guests on the South Lawn, including a bipartisan group of lawmakers who crafted and supported the legislation, state and local officials, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, and the families of the victims of both. mass shootings and everyday gun violence.
“Because of your work, your advocacy, your courage, lives will be saved today and tomorrow because of this,” Biden said.
“We will not save every life from the gun violence epidemic,” he added, “but if this law had been in place years ago, even this last year, lives would have been saved.”
Still, Biden said, “we are living in a country awash in weapons of war.” He repeated his call for Congress to pass a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, or at a minimum, to require more stringent background checks and training before purchases.
He also said Congress should pass legislation to hold gun owners legally responsible if their guns are improperly stored and used to commit acts of violence. He noted that he owns four shotguns and said he keeps them safe in his house.
“We can’t just sit idly by,” Biden said. “With rights come responsibilities. If you own a gun, you have a responsibility to secure it and keep it locked up.”
Biden on Saturday invited Americans to share with him via text, a new White House communications strategy, their stories of how they’ve been affected by gun violence, tweeting that “I’m hosting a celebration of the approval of Safer Communities”. Act.” He told some of his stories on Monday, of people traumatized by shootings and orphaned children.
The new law is the most shocking gun violence measure Congress has passed since enacting an assault weapons ban that expired in 1993. Yet gun control advocates, and even White House, say it’s premature to declare victory.
“There’s just not much to celebrate here,” said Igor Volsky, director of the private group Guns Down America.
“It’s historic, but it’s also the bare minimum of what Congress should do,” Volsky said. “And as the 4th of July shooting reminded us, and there are so many other gun deaths that have happened since then, the crisis of gun violence is that much more urgent.”
Volsky’s group, along with other advocacy groups, held a news conference Monday outside the White House to ask Biden to create a White House office to address gun violence with a greater sense of urgency.
Biden has left gun control policy to his National Policy Council, instead establishing a dedicated office like the one he opened to address climate change or the gender policy council he started to promote access to reproductive health.
“We have a president who hasn’t really hit the moment, who has chosen to act as a bystander on this issue,” Volsky said. “For whatever reason, the administration adamantly refuses to have a senior official who can push this issue throughout the government.”
During his remarks on Monday, Biden was interrupted by Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Biden paused briefly in his speech and asked a screaming Oliver to sit down, before adding “Let him talk, let him talk,” as he was escorted out of the event.
The president signed the bipartisan gun bill into law on June 25, calling it “a landmark achievement” at the time.
On Monday, Biden said the law’s passage should be a call for more action.
“Will we combine thoughts and prayers with action?” Biden asked. “I say yes. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
On Friday, Biden responded to the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by noting how the shooting had shocked people in Japan. The country has a surprisingly low incidence of gun violence compared to the US, which has already experienced thousands of gun deaths this year.
Most of the new law’s $13 billion in spending would be used to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted by shooters in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland. The law was the product of weeks of behind-closed-door negotiations by a bipartisan group of senators who emerged with a compromise.
It does not include much stricter restrictions that Democrats and Biden have long advocated, such as a ban on assault weapons and background checks for all gun deals. Prospects are slim for any further congressional action this year.