(The Guardian) Biden calls afresh for US assault rifles ban: 'We are living in a country awash in weapons of war'
Joe Biden is once again appealing to Congress to go further with gun safety legislation and ban assault weapons in the US.
In remarks at the White House moments ago he included a vivid indictment of the proliferation of military-style assault weapons among the general public in recent years and how they repeatedly feature in mass shootings.
“We are living in a country awash in weapons of war,” the US president said. “Weapons that are designed to hunt are not being used [in massacres], weapons they are purchasing are designed as weapons of war, to take out an enemy. What is the rationale for these weapons outside war zones? Some people claim it’s for sport or to hunt,” he continued in front of an estimated audience of about 300 people on the South Lawn of the White House.
“But let’s look at the facts,” he said. Biden spoke of bullets fired from an assault rifle moving twice as fast as bullets fired from handguns and “maximize the damage done” to people.
“Human flesh and bone is just torn apart and as difficult as it is to say, that’s why so many people and so many in this audience – and I apologize for having to say it – need to provide DNA samples to identify the remains of their children, think of that,” he said.
“Yet we continue to let these weapons be sold to people with no training or expertise,” he said.
He notes that such lethal weapons provided to soldiers require them to have extensive training and background checks and mental health assessments, and required responsible storage.
“We don’t require the same common sense measures for a stranger walking into a gun store to purchase an AR15 or some weapon like that. It makes no sense.”
“Assault weapons need to be banned,” he said. “They were banned, I led the fight in 1994,” he said, noting that the successful but temporary federal ban on assault rifles being on sale to the general public in the US ended in 2004.
“In that 10 years, it was long, mass shootings went down, and when the law expired in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled, they’re the facts.
“I’m determined to ban these weapons again,” he said, to applause from the audience at the White House.
He said he also wanted to get high capacity magazines banned “and I’m not going to stop until we do it”.
Biden noted that “guns are the number one killer of children in the United States, more than car accidents, more than cancer”.
He said that in the last 20 years, “more US high school children have died from gunshots than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined, think of that. We can’t just stand by. With rights come responsibilities. Yes there is a right to bear arms but we also have a right to live freely, without fear for our lives in a grocery store, in a playground...”
Joe Biden is once again appealing to Congress to go further with gun safety legislation and ban assault weapons in the US.
In remarks at the White House moments ago he included a vivid indictment of the proliferation of military-style assault weapons among the general public in recent years and how they repeatedly feature in mass shootings.
“We are living in a country awash in weapons of war,” the US president said. “Weapons that are designed to hunt are not being used [in massacres], weapons they are purchasing are designed as weapons of war, to take out an enemy. What is the rationale for these weapons outside war zones? Some people claim it’s for sport or to hunt,” he continued in front of an estimated audience of about 300 people on the South Lawn of the White House.
“But let’s look at the facts,” he said. Biden spoke of bullets fired from an assault rifle moving twice as fast as bullets fired from handguns and “maximize the damage done” to people.
“Human flesh and bone is just torn apart and as difficult as it is to say, that’s why so many people and so many in this audience – and I apologize for having to say it – need to provide DNA samples to identify the remains of their children, think of that,” he said.
“Yet we continue to let these weapons be sold to people with no training or expertise,” he said.
He notes that such lethal weapons provided to soldiers require them to have extensive training and background checks and mental health assessments, and required responsible storage.
“We don’t require the same common sense measures for a stranger walking into a gun store to purchase an AR15 or some weapon like that. It makes no sense.”
“Assault weapons need to be banned,” he said. “They were banned, I led the fight in 1994,” he said, noting that the successful but temporary federal ban on assault rifles being on sale to the general public in the US ended in 2004.
“In that 10 years, it was long, mass shootings went down, and when the law expired in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled, they’re the facts.
“I’m determined to ban these weapons again,” he said, to applause from the audience at the White House.
He said he also wanted to get high capacity magazines banned “and I’m not going to stop until we do it”.
Biden noted that “guns are the number one killer of children in the United States, more than car accidents, more than cancer”.
He said that in the last 20 years, “more US high school children have died from gunshots than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined, think of that. We can’t just stand by. With rights come responsibilities. Yes there is a right to bear arms but we also have a right to live freely, without fear for our lives in a grocery store, in a playground...”
