Biden said he would attempt to introduce gun control legislation during the lame-duck session. President Biden announced on Thursday that he would attempt to enact a law prohibiting assault rifles during the lame-duck session before the next Congress is sworn in, despite the opposition of Republicans and the low likelihood of success.
Following a week that witnessed three horrific shootings in the United States, Biden addressed the media on Thanksgiving morning.
Biden declared it “crazy” that red flag rules, which allow law enforcement agents to take weapons from someone judged a threat to themselves or others, were not being applied nationwide.
No. 2, the notion that we still permit the purchase of semiautomatic guns is sickening. It’s disgusting. It has no redeeming social value and zero, none, Biden rambled on. There is no justification for it other than profit for gun manufacturers, Biden added.
Biden stated that he would “attempt to ban assault rifles” during the lame-duck session, but it would rely on his ability to pass a law. He also claimed he would do it “whenever,” apparently losing his train of thought. Biden then added that he had to make that assessment and start counting the vote.
Earlier this year, the House passed a measure to prohibit assault rifles. Still, it was doomed because Democrats held a narrow majority in the Senate, and most Republicans were unified against such legislation, making it difficult to overcome a filibuster.
In January, when the new Congress convenes, the House will be under Republican leadership, making passage of any gun control legislation much more difficult.
Another week has been marred by gun violence in America.
On Tuesday evening, a shooter opened fire with a pistol inside a break room at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, killing at least six people and wounding at least six more.
Three days earlier, a gunman opened fire at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing five and wounding at least 25.
And less than a week before the Colorado massacre, a student at the University of Virginia shot and murdered three classmates who had just returned from a class field trip.
Just a few months after the May massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, the violence has again shaken the nation.
After Uvalde, Congress enacted a bipartisan gun control package that, among other provisions, increased background checks for those ages 18 to 21.
It was the most major piece of gun control legislation in almost three decades, but it fell short of the more extensive measures that activists and Democrats had demanded. After Uvalde, Biden( who was a senator when Congress approved a brief ban on assault weapons in 1994) urged for another ban on assault weapons.