President Joe Biden on Sunday told reporters he’s gotten gun legislation passed before, and he can do it again.
“I’m the only one who’s ever gotten it passed, man,” Biden said at New Castle Air National Guard Base in Delaware.
“Everyone keeps wondering whether I care about dealing with rational gun control — the only gun control legislation ever passed is mine,” he said, adding,”It’s gonna happen again.”
Biden was speaking of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004.
Biden said he might call GOP Congress members to aid in the push since the Senate is split 50-50.
Calls for national gun legislation have increased after two deadly gun massacres in less than a week. The mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia are giving new urgency to state efforts to enact gun restrictions, while showing how hard it is to avoid a tragedy.
A gunman opened fire Monday in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, with a weapon that resembles an AR-15 rifle, killing 10 people before he was captured. He bought the Ruger AR-556 pistol on March 16, the same day another 21-year-old man on the other side of the country killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area massage companies.
Biden called for action on gun reform following the two mass shootings, and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who represents Boulder, asked Biden to prohibit imported semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. But laws in Congress faces an uphill climb, and it’s been more than two decades since any major federal gun control laws have passed.
That means most significant gun legislation has been left to the states, including Colorado, where lawmakers have passed gun control laws in recent years. But the defendant in the supermarket shooting, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, nevertheless could legally buy a firearm, keep it despite concerns about his mental condition and open fire in a town that had tried to ban assault-style weapons.
That’s led to calls for stronger action from the country, and Democratic leaders are listening. However, support for gun rights is strong in parts of Colorado, and Second Amendment advocates assert new restrictions aren’t the answer.
Colorado has a law requiring background checks on almost all gun sales. The defendant had a misdemeanor assault conviction from high school, but it didn’t prevent him from buying a gun from a shop near his suburban Denver home because most misdemeanors do not block people from authorized firearm purchases.
A ordinance in the city of Boulder that banned assault-style weapons was struck down in court just days before the shooting due to a state law that bars local leaders from making their own gun rules. It might also be paired with other new legislation.
“There’s not one answer to this problem. It has to be a complex and comprehensive set of policies because every tragedy is different,” he said.