“We are painfully aware that we cannot do enough today to save all of these lives.” “There are no perfect solutions,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said as he opened Thursday’s hearing. That means that although the House can pass bills without any Republican support, GOP backing in the Senate is crucial for any measure to have a chance to become law. ![]() But in the Senate, there’s a 50-50 split between the Democratic and Republican caucuses, and most bills need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. The Uvalde shooting, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed last week - less than two weeks after 10 Black people were killed in a racist attack in Buffalo - has jolted Congress into taking action, even if prospects for passage are dim.ĭemocrats narrowly control the House, where legislation is passed by a simple majority. Tulsa, Okla., joined the growing list of mass shooting sites Wednesday when a gunman opened fire in a medical building, killing four before taking his own life. The president met with victims’ loved ones, who he said “had one message for all of us: Do something.” The panel’s Thursday morning session was scheduled in the aftermath of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde - shootings that prompted Biden to visit both cities in the last few weeks to commiserate with and console their devastated communities. The House Judiciary Committee voted on the measure as Biden was speaking from the White House, and advanced it on a 25-19 party-line vote, without a single Republican voting in support. The president’s remarks from the White House‘s Cross Hall, which was lined with 56 candles memorializing shooting victims in all states and territories, came just hours after a congressional committee held an emergency meeting Thursday to begin writing a legislative package of gun violence prevention bills that could set up votes on the House floor next week. Unfortunately, too many people don’t have to imagine that at all.” “Imagine what it’s like for so many parents to hug their kids goodbye in the morning, not sure whether they’ll come back home. Imagine what it’s like for children who experience this kind of trauma every day in school, in the streets, in communities all across America,” Biden said. “Imagine what it’d be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again. Urging Congress to act, he asked lawmakers and the country to imagine the fear of the 10-year-old survivor of last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, who smeared a classmate’s blood on her body to fool the gunman into thinking she was already dead. He also called for a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines - or short of that, for raising the minimum age for purchasing such weapons from 18 to 21. Promising that his call for reform was “not about taking away anyone’s guns,” Biden argued in his 17-minute speech for specific measures, including expanded background checks, “red flag” laws, safe-storage laws and other measures that go far beyond what the Senate is currently considering. ![]() “How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say, ‘Enough’?” “For God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden asked. ![]() With the country reeling from three mass shootings in the last three weeks, President Biden called on Congress to deliver “common-sense” reforms to curb gun violence, during a rare prime-time address from the White House.īiden has tried to give lawmakers space to find the sort of bipartisan compromise on firearms that has eluded them for decades in the aftermath of many other shootings.īut his seizing of the bully pulpit also reflected a determination to show the country his own passion and commitment to eradicate the distinctly American epidemic of gun violence, and to share his optimism that even a deeply polarized Congress and Republicans long opposed to tightening gun laws could be spurred to act.
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