Late Monday evening, President Joe Biden lauded a group of Senate Democrats who introduced legislation that would ban military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, invoking the November 2022 mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., and last week’s mass shooting after a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, Calif.
“When I signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the first significant piece of gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years – I said that there was still work to be done to keep our communities safe and keep dangerous firearms out of dangerous hands,” Biden wrote in a statement Monday night. “In the short time since, communities across America have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to Monterey Park and daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines.”
Shortly after Biden issued that statement, reports began to emerge about an incident in Half Moon Bay, Calif., just six hours north of Monterey Park, where a gunman killed seven people at two agricultural businesses. It was the state’s third mass killing in eight days.
In a statement Tuesday morning, the president wrote that he and first lady Jill Biden “are praying for those killed and injured in the latest tragic shooting in Half Moon Bay, California.”
“For the second time in recent days, California communities are mourning the loss of loved ones in a senseless act of gun violence,” Biden continued, adding: “Even as we await further details on these shootings, we know the scourge of gun violence across America requires stronger action.”
There have been six mass shootings so far already in 2023, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
Biden on Tuesday once again called for a ban on assault weapons, urging lawmakers to pass a bill introduced in the Senate on Monday by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and co-sponsored by Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal.
“In the 10 years that the Assault Weapons Ban was on the books, mass shootings went down,” Biden wrote on Monday. “After Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled.”
According to fact-checker Politifact, studies show that mass shootings dropped slightly in the decade after the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was enacted, and then skyrocketed after the ban was allowed to expire in 2004. The measure was part of a broader crime package — the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 — sponsored by Biden when he was a member of the Senate.
Biden has repeatedly called for the renewal of the assault weapons ban, including after the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May of last year, though it has virtually no chance to pass Congress in the face of Republican opposition.
According to a statement from Sen. Feinstein’s office, the assault weapons ban would restrict “the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and other high-capacity ammunition feeding devices,” while a companion bill, the Age 21 act, would “raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21, the same requirement that currently exists in law for handguns.”
“The constant stream of mass shootings have one common thread: they almost all involve assault weapons,” Feinstein said in a statement. “It’s because these weapons were designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. They have no business in our communities or schools.”
“These military-style combat weapons – built for the battlefield and designed to maximize death and destruction – have brought bloodshed and carnage to our streets and continue to be the weapon of choice in countless mass shootings,” Blumenthal added. “Guns don’t respect state boundaries, which is why we need a national solution to restricting the ownership and use of assault weapons. Now is the time to honor gun violence victims and survivors with this common sense action.”
The House last year passed an assault weapons ban for the first time since 2004, but it had no chance of passing the 50-50 Senate. With the House now under control of Republicans after last year’s midterms, it’s unclear whether the bill would even be considered in the chamber, let alone have any chance to pass.
“We passed the assault weapons ban in the House last year with bipartisan support, which was then blocked by Senate Republicans,” Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., who introduced the assault weapons ban in the House, wrote in a statement. “We need to come together to enact this commonsense, effective, and proven policy to reduce gun violence and save lives.”
Despite the long odds, Biden continues to call for such a measure to reach his desk.
“The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action,” Biden said Monday. “There can be no greater responsibility than to do all we can to ensure the safety of our children, our communities, and our nation.”
