“Today, I am asking Congress to promote common sense reforms in arms law, including requiring background checks on all arms sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating immunity for arms manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets, “Biden said in a statement.
“This government is not going to wait for the next mass shooting to answer that call,” the statement said. “We will take steps to end our epidemic of armed violence and make our schools and communities safer.”
Biden’s call came three years after an armed man opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, leaving 17 people dead. The tragedy led many of the survivors to protest armed violence and confront lawmakers about gun control reform.
CNN contacted the White House to find out how the government is planning to pass the proposed reforms to Biden’s gun law.
The president’s stated commitment to fighting armed violence goes back to his campaign time, when he campaigned to strengthen arms control measures. His openness to address the issue was noted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, who said Congress would work with the government to pass two background check bills passed by the House during the last Congress.
“Now, working with the Democratic Senate and the Biden-Harris administration, we will pass these and other life-saving bills and deliver the progress that the Parkland community and the American people deserve and demand,” said Pelosi, a Democrat from California in a statement.
Congress has long struggled to deal with armed violence in the United States, even after the mass shootings that took place in Columbine in 1999.
Under former President Donald Trump, little action has been taken on the matter. The Justice Department, however, banned the use of bump stocks in 2018 after the device gained national attention when a sniper in Las Vegas equipped its weapons with devices to shoot spectators in 2017, killing 58 people.
Last week, Susan Rice, head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, and Cedric Richmond, a senior Biden adviser, held a virtual meeting with armed violence prevention groups where the two “highlighted the president’s long-standing record. Biden to fight for families affected by armed violence, his full support for taking common sense actions to reduce armed violence and his unwavering commitment to take further steps to make our communities safer, “according to a reading from the meeting provided by the White House.
In his statement, Biden spoke about the personal tribute that the Parkland tragedy took on the families of his victims, saying that “like many families – and, indeed, as our nation – they were left wondering if things would be okay.”
“We owe it to everyone we lost and everyone who stayed behind to make a change,” he said. “The time to act is now.”
CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
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