Biden demands reform on US gun laws
16 February, 2021
US President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to enact "commonsense" gun law reforms, 3 years following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
"This administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed that call up," Mr Biden said on a affirmation marking the Valentine's Day shooting in 2018 that left 17 persons dead and brought fresh focus on America's lax gun regulations.
"We will need action to get rid of our epidemic of gun violence and try to make our academic institutions and communities safer."
Mr Biden said he wants Congress to move laws that would require criminal background checks on all gun product sales and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
The confessed school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, who was simply 19 at the time, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and fired between 100 and 150 rounds in a rampage that killed 14 students and three adult staff at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL.
Mr Biden said Congress must get rid of "immunity for gun makers who knowingly set weapons of battle on our streets."
Cruz could choose the assault rifle legally, in spite of having known mental health issues.
Even in a country which has grown inured to mass shootings and gun violence, the Florida capturing sparked outrage across the US and prompted fresh demands for firearms control.
But with Donald Trump found in the White House and the Republicans controlling the Senate at that time, legislation approved by the Democrats in the House of Representatives went nowhere.
Democratic Loudspeaker Nancy Pelosi about Sunday said the House would try again.
"We will enact these and various other life-saving charges and deliver the improvement that the Parkland community and the American people deserve and demand," she said in a declaration.
Despite polls finding most Us citizens in favour of some kind of gun law reforms, successive US administrations have already been powerless to pass legislation.
"The time to do something is currently," Mr Biden said.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com