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Much more action is needed to "address the epidemic of gun
violence that is tearing our communities apart," Biden said in a
statement released by the White House. He called on Republican
lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to negotiate with his fellow
Democrats on gun reforms.
"It is within our power to once again ban assault weapons and
high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns, to end
gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and to enact
universal background checks," Biden said in the written remarks.
Biden has made similar pleas before. Deadly mass shootings tend
reignite the heated debate over gun control in the United
States.
The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment that protects the right
to bear arms is a hot button issue for many Republicans, who
receive millions of dollars in donations from gun rights groups
and manufacturers.
The United States has been struggling with a large number of
mass shootings and incidents of gun violence this year.
There have been over 340 mass shootings so far in 2023 in the
country, according to data collected by the Gun Violence
Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which
at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Biden's remarks come after Monday night's shootings in Fort
Worth, Texas and in Philadelphia, that killed three and five
people, respectively. A day earlier, two people were shot dead
and 28 others injured, about half of them children, in a hail of
gunfire at an outdoor neighborhood block party in Baltimore,
Maryland.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
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