President Joe Biden, pressed on potential avenues for gun control within the wake of the devastating faculty taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas, pointed to an assault weapons ban Monday morning.
“It makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds,” he informed reporters outdoors the White House after touring from Delaware. “The idea of these high-caliber weapons — there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of, about self-protection, hunting and I guess — and, remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute. You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”
The president and the first lady visited Uvalde on Sunday, meeting with first responders and consoling the families of the 19 children and two teachers killed in the shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School. He and Jill Biden visited the school and attended mass at a local church, where demonstrators nearby chanted “Do something.” Biden mouthed back, “We will.”
Speaking with reporters Monday, Biden said he “deliberately” didn’t focus on potential laws with Republicans whereas consoling the households, however famous that he anticipated members of the GOP could be taking a arduous have a look at potential paths for change.
A bipartisan group of senators began informal talks last week on gun safety, discussing legislation including red flag laws that allow police or family members to petition courts to remove guns from dangerous individuals. Lawmakers say there is renewed energy around the issue following the deadly massacres in Uvalde and a little over a week earlier, at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
“There’s a sense of, you recognize, urgency that perhaps we didn’t really feel earlier than,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday. “So we’re gonna attempt.”
On Monday, Biden appeared to credit a federal assault rifle ban — which expired in 2004 — for reducing gun deaths previously, saying, “I do know what occurred after we had rational motion earlier than,” adding that the prohibition “lower down mass murders.”
“Not many are saying it anymore, however there was a whereas there the place individuals have been saying that, you recognize, the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots, and what we now have to do is, we now have to give you the option to tackle the federal government once they’re mistaken. Well, to do that you just want an F-15, you recognize? You want an Abrams tank.”
“So, it’s just, as I say, I think things have gotten so bad that everybody’s getting more rational about it,” he concluded. “At least, that’s my hope and prayer.”
He added that he thought “there’s a realization on the part of rational Republicans — and I think Senator [Mitch] McConnell is a rational Republican; I think Cornyn is as well. I think there’s a recognition in their part that they — we can’t continue like this. We can’t do this.”
