- Title: Biden demands strong gun measures; says 'can't fail the American people again'
- Date: 3rd June 2022
- Summary: WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES (JUNE 2, 2022) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN WALKING TO PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "According to new data just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America, the number one killer, more than car accidents, more than cancer. Over the last two decades, more school aged children have died from guns than on duty police officers and active duty military combined. Think about that. More kids than on duty cops killed by guns, more kids than soldiers killed by guns. For God's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough, enough." WIDE SHOT SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "There are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields battlefields here in America." WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "We need to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And if we can't ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from eighteen to twenty one, strengthen background checks, enact safe storage law and red flag laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability. Address the mental health crisis, deepening the trauma of gun violence and as a consequence of that violence. These are rational, commonsense measures. Here's what it all means. It all means this. We should reinstate the assault weapons ban on high capacity magazines that we passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in Congress, and the support of law enforcement. Nine categories of semiautomatic weapons were included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s. And in the ten years it was law, mass shootings went down. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004, those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled. Those are the facts. " WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "This is not about taking away anyone's guns. It's not about vilifying gun owners. In fact, we believe we should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave." WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "There have always been limitations on what weapons you can own in America. For example, machine guns have been federally regulated for nearly 90 years, and this is still a free country. This isn't about taking away anyone's rights. It's about protecting children." WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "The damage is so devastating in Uvalde parents had to do DNA swabs to identify the remains of their children, nine and 10 year old children. Enough. We should expand background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons, fugitives and those under restraining orders. Stronger background checks are something that the vast majority of Americans, including the majority of gun owners, agree on" WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "Look, I know some folks will say 18 year olds can serve in the military and fire those weapons, but that's with training and supervision by the best trained experts in the world. Don't tell me raising the age won't make a difference. Enough." WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "The gun industry special protections are outrageous. It must end. And let there be no mistake about the psychological trauma that gun violence leaves behind. Imagine being that little girl, that brave little girl, in Uvalde who smeared blood off her murdered friends body on her own face to lie still among the corpses in her classroom and pretend she was dead in order to stay alive. Imagine imagine what it'd be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again. Imagine ." WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "There's a serious youth mental health crisis in this country. We have to do something about it." . WIDE SHOT OF BIDEN SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, saying: "This time we have to take the time to do something. And this time, it's time for the Senate to do something. But as we know, in order to get anything done in the Senate, we need a minimum of ten Republican senators. I support the bipartisan efforts that include small group of Democrats and Republican senators trying to find a way. But my God, the fact that a majority of the Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable. We can't fail the American people again." SIDE SHOT OF BIDEN LEAVING PODIUM AS REPORTERS SHOUT QUESTIONS
- Embargoed: 17th June 2022 01:37
- Keywords: Biden Congress gun control gun violence guns mass shootings
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001243502062022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Declaring "Enough, enough!" U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday (June 2) urged Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other sensible gun control measures to address a string of mass shootings to address a string of mass shootings that have struck the United States.
Speaking from the White House, in a speech broadcast live in primetime, Biden asked a country stunned by the recent shootings of school children in Texas, at a medical building in Oklahoma and at a Buffalo, New York, grocery story how much it would take.
"For God's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?" Biden asked.
The president, a Democrat, called for a number of measures that have historically been blocked by Republicans in Congress, including raising the age at which adults can buy guns and repealing the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from being sued for violence perpetrated by people carrying their weapons.
"We can't fail the American people again," Biden said, pressing Republicans to allow bills including gun control measures to come up for a vote.
The United States, which has a higher rate of gun deaths than any other wealthy nation, has been shaken in recent weeks by the high-profile mass shootings at a grocery story in New York, an elementary school in Texas that killed 19 children, and a medical building in Oklahoma.
Gun safety advocates have pushed Biden to take stronger measures on his own to curb gun violence, but the White House wants Congress to pass legislation that would have more lasting impact than any presidential order.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday was working on a bill aimed at toughening national gun laws, though the measure has little chance of passing the Senate.
Biden's evening address was aimed at putting further pressure on lawmakers and keeping the issue at the forefront of voters' minds. He has made only a handful of evening speeches from the White House during his term, including one on the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and one about the Texas shooting last week.
More than 18,000 people have died from gun violence in the United States in 2022, including through homicide and suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group.
Canada, Australia and Britain all passed stricter gun laws after mass shootings in their countries, banning assault weapons and increasing background checks. America has experienced two decades of massacres in schools, stores and places of work and worship without any such legislation.
A broad majority of American voters, both Republicans and Democrats, favor stronger gun control laws, but Republicans in Congress and some moderate Democrats have blocked such legislation for years.
Prices of shares in gun manufacturers rose on Thursday. Efforts to advance gun control measures have boosted firearm share prices after other mass shootings as investors anticipated that gun purchases would increase ahead of stricter regulations.
As president, Biden has called on Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons and pass measures to require universal background checks for those who purchase guns.
In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, he urged the country to take on the powerful pro-gun lobby that backs politicians who oppose such legislation.
The Senate is split, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and a law must have 60 votes to overcome a maneuver known as the filibuster, which means any law would need rare bipartisan support.
While Biden and Congress explore compromises, the Supreme Court is due to decide a major case that could undermine new efforts to enact gun control measures while making existing ones vulnerable to legal attack.
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