After just 16 days in force, a fresh mass shooting has eclipsed President Joe Biden’s ‘celebration’ of a new bipartisan bill aimed at reducing gun violence.
The law, approved in the wake of recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, makes it more difficult for minors to purchase firearms, limits access to firearms to more domestic abusers, and gives local authorities the ability to temporarily seize weapons from dangerous persons.
This Monday morning ceremony comes only one week after a shooter murdered seven people during an Independence Day celebration on the South Lawn in Highland Park, Illinois, a sharp reminder of the new law’s shortcomings in combating American gun violence.
After the Safer Communities Act was signed into law on Friday, President Joe Biden tweeted that he would be throwing a “celebration” for those who had been affected by gun violence.”
Aside from a now-expired assault weapons prohibition from 1993, this is the most significant anti-gun violence legislation passed by Congress in recent memory. Even White House officials agree it’s premature to claim success in the battle against guns.
In the words of Guns Down America director Igor Volsky: “There is just nothing to celebrate here.”
While it is momentous, it is also the absolute least that Congress should accomplish, Volsky added. There have been a number of recent incidents of gun violence, like the July 4th shooting, that have made this issue even more serious.
Several gun violence advocacy organisations, including Volsky’s, plan to hold a press conference outside the White House on Monday to push President Joe Biden to establish a dedicated White House office to combat gun violence.
Rather of creating a specialised office as he did for climate change or the gender policy council he formed to promote reproductive health access, Biden has left gun control policy to his Domestic Policy Council.
When it comes to this particular subject, the president has “truly not met the moment,” Volsky said. A senior person who can push this issue throughout government, for whatever reason, is a resounding refusal by the administration.
Bipartisan legislation on guns was signed into law by the president on June 25 “when it happened.
Time is running out.’ He made the statement in the Roosevelt Room before leaving for Europe at a hurriedly organised signing ceremony. “Lives will be saved,” Biden declared. The president spoke of the families of those killed in shootings, saying, “Their message to us was, Do something.” That’s something we’ve heard a lot lately. Don’t be afraid to take action. Just do something, for goodness’ sake.’ Today, we did.’
Despite the bill’s passing, White House sources say that Biden sees it as a framework that has to be built on, rather than a finish line. The shooting in Illinois took place nine days after the measure was signed into law.
On July 4, President Joe Biden said that he has signed the first significant bipartisan gun control legislation in over 30 years into law, which includes moves that will save lives. As a gun-control advocate, however, I will not give up my struggle against the plague of gun violence.”
When former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday, President Joe Biden took notice of how people in Japan were affected. While hundreds of Americans have been killed by guns this year, the nation has a far lower rate of gun violence than the US.
Mental health programmes and school safety would get the bulk of the new law’s $13 billion in funding, most of it from the same sources that funded the catastrophic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida. A bipartisan group of senators worked for weeks behind closed doors to reach an agreement.
It does not contain the considerably more stringent limitations championed by Democrats and President Joe Biden, such as a ban on assault-type weapons and universal background checks for all gun sales. Though Biden was scheduled to reprise his appeal for stricter sanctions in the Senate on Monday, the chances of additional action in Congress are poor to none.