- Title: Joe Biden pledges action on gun control if elected, slams Bernie Sanders
- Date: 20th February 2020
- Summary: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 20, 2020) (REUTERS) DEMOCRATIC U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOE BIDEN ARRIVING TO MAKE ADDRESS ON GUN CONTROL IN FRONT OF A GROUP OF VICTIMS OF GUN VIOLENCE AND ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN POSTER FOR BIDEN READING: "BEAT THE NRA WITH BIDEN" (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER, JOE BIDEN, SAYING: "I've beaten the National Rifle Association (NRA) nationally twice. I've passed meaningful gun legislation at the federal level and I'll do it again. But it won't just be because I'll do it, it's because Moms Against Gun Violence are now mobilized, young victims, school children across the country are mobilized, clicking the conscience of everybody out there who says my thoughts and prayers are with you." WIDE OF PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER, JOE BIDEN, SAYING: "Folks, it's just flat out immoral. It's just flat out immoral. You know, too many Republicans and some Democrats, like Bernie Sanders, voted 5 times against the Brady Bill that I was passing, 5 times against background checks and waiting periods, notwithstanding the fact that the millions of people who were denied having access to weapons of destruction because they didn't qualify, they weren't responsible to own one." GUN VIOLENCE SURVIVORS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER, JOE BIDEN, SAYING: "150,000 people murdered just since 2005, 150,000 people murdered since 2005." BIDEN AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER, JOE BIDEN, SAYING: "Every day that we do nothing about this epidemic of assaults and assault weapons, high capacity magazines in our streets, is an insult. And the innumerable lives across this nation that have been forever shattered by this violence. As president, I promise you, I will get these weapons of war off the street again." GROUP OF SURVIVORS OF GUN VIOLENCE GATHERED CLOSE-UP OF SHIRT READING: "MOMS DEMAND ACTION" BIDEN AND STEPHANIE, A MOTHER WHOSE FOUR-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WAS KILLED BY A STRAY BULLET MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEPHANIE, A MOTHER WHOSE FOUR-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WAS KILLED BY A STRAY BULLET, SAYING: "She was a vivacious little girl who was going to make a mark in this world. That day I remember sitting with her on the couch brushing her curly light brunette hair, braiding it back so that it wouldn't be in her face for the day. But later that day our lives would be forever changed when my daughter was shot by a stray bullet. The braids I had so happily made in my daughter's hair just that morning would be handed to me by a nurse, placed in a plastic bag shaved from her head. Her curls would be replaced by wires. My daughter would lay in a hospital bed after brain surgery hooked up to life support machines while we waited to see if she could possibly pull through this, if there was any sign. Two days after she was shot on March 8th, 2011, we made the decision to turn off life support machines. They let me hold her one last time before taking her back from me. No parents should have to endure this pain." VIEW OF SPEAKERS CLOSE-UP OF BIDEN CAMPAIGN POSTER
- Embargoed: 5th March 2020 22:57
- Keywords: Biden Joe Las Vegas Nevada gun control
- Location: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES
- City: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001C1F5V7R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday (February 20) met with gun violence survivors and activists in Las Vegas, a day after a fiery Democratic Presidential debate in Nevada.
Speaking to reporters in front of a group of mothers who had lost children and family members to gun violence, Biden promised to act on the issue if he were elected president.
"I've beaten the National Rifle Association (NRA) nationally twice. I've passed meaningful gun legislation at the federal level and I'll do it again," he said.
Biden, fighting a close race against Bernie Sanders and others in the Democratic party's presidential nominating contest, then spotlighted elements of the Sanders' record.
Specifically, Biden pointed out Sanders' voting against the 1993 Brady Bill that imposed mandatory background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases.
"Too many Republicans and some Democrats, like Bernie Sanders, voted 5 times against the Brady bill that I was passing, 5 times against background checks and waiting periods, notwithstanding the fact that the millions of people who were denied having access to weapons of destruction because they didn't qualify, they weren't responsible to own one," he said.
Biden was speaking two days before Nevada's presidential caucuses, the third contest in the state-by-state race to find a challenger to Trump in the Nov. 3 election.
Gun control is a hot topic in the state, especially after a gun man killed 58 people at a Las Vegas concert in 2017, in what was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
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