After the Newton elementary school massacre, Barack Obama made a similar appeal and wiped away a tear. On Thursday, Joe Biden urged the US Congress to find a way to limit the sale of assault rifles, lashing out at opposition Republicans nearly ten days after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas school.
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“How much more carnage are we willing to accept? ‘ the American President ranted, reiterating during this address to the nation from the White House that he is ‘enough’ of these repeated shootings that America is mourning, with guns that have been the 2020 main cause of death among those under 19. Behind his desk were 56 candles representing the victims of these massacres across American states and territories. After the shootings at Uvalde Elementary School, a Buffalo convenience store, and Wednesday’s shooting at a Tulsa hospital, he insisted that “too many everyday places[had]become places of killing, battlefields.”
No chance in the Senate
Joe Biden has called for a national ban on the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles, including the AR-15, between 1994 and 2004. However, he is aware of the difficulty of passing such a measure in Congress, where it would require convincing 10 Republican senators, he nuanced: “We must at least raise the legal age” to obtain such weapons, from 18 to 21. Even this lesser measure seems unattainable at the moment.
He also called for a ban on high-capacity magazines, increased criminal or psychological screening of potential buyers, and a vote on a text requiring individuals to keep their guns locked. “In the last 20 years, more school children have died from gunfire than the total number of police officers and soldiers who have died on duty,” he said. “Think about it. “The Second Amendment” to the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to own a gun, “is not absolute,” the Democratic president assessed.
“I support the action (…) of a small group of Republican and Democratic senators trying to find a way, but my God, the fact that the majority of Senate Republicans don’t want any of these proposals debated or put to a vote, that I find it inadmissible,” he complained. “We cannot betray the American people again,” he continued during the 17-minute speech. “It’s about time the Senate did something. »
“Optimism” of a Republican Senator
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Senator Chris Murphy wrote on Twitter. “We have to do something. And we can,” continued this Connecticut elected official who, forever scarred by the Sandy Hook shooting incident (26 dead, including 20 children in 2012), chairs the Republican-Democrat discussion group .
The challenge for this group is to find measures that could win the approval of ten Republican senators, which is imperative because of the qualified majority in the Senate. But in a country where more than 30% of adults own at least one firearm, conservatives staunchly oppose any action that might violate the rights of “law-abiding citizens.”
The discussions in the Senate therefore revolve around limited proposals for the time being, such as background checks on gun buyers, which associations have been calling for for years.
Could the ongoing Senate negotiations succeed where all others, particularly those initiated under Barack Obama after the Sandy Hook massacre, have failed? “There’s a growing momentum for us to get something done,” Senator Chris Murphy previously said on Twitter. Republican Senator Pat Toomey also expressed his “optimism.”