Parkland Anniversary Sees Biden Struggling for Stricter Gun Control
Four years after 17 people were gunned down at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., President Joe Biden is pushing members of Congress to provide funding to help reduce violent crime, and insisting they pass legislation requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers.
Landwebs
Four years after 17 people were gunned down at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., President Joe Biden is pushing members of Congress to provide funding to help reduce violent crime and insisting they pass legislation requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers.
However, despite the ongoing toll of gun violence, with the gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety reporting at least 136 instances of gunfire on school grounds between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, alone, much of Biden’s first-year efforts to pass legislation to tighten gun laws haven’t left the drawing board, and he was forced to pull his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, reports the Los Angeles Times.
And while he has lobbied for a crackdown on “ ghost guns,” worked to tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces like the one used in a Boulder, Colo., shooting that left 10 people dead, and encouraged cities to use their COVID-19 relief dollars to help manage gun violence, most of these efforts fall far short of major change.
Biden says his administration stands with the advocates working to end gun violence and is urging Americans to uphold the “solemn obligation” to “keep each other safe,” but with little to no appetite in Congress to pass gun legislation, there are limits to what the president can do.
In a statement timed for release on the anniversary, Biden pledged to work with activists to make sure “that the voices of victims and survivors and responsible gun owners are louder than the voices of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association.”
Biden continued: “We can never bring back those we’ve lost. But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe. For Parkland, for all those we’ve lost, and for all those left behind, it is time to uphold that solemn obligation.”
