Joe Biden called upon the US Congress to limit the sale assault rifles. He blasted the Republicans elected to oppose the ban, almost ten days after the massacre at Texas school that killed 19 children and their teachers.
"How much more carnage can we accept?" "," he scolded American President, repeating during his address to the nation at the White House that he had "enough" of the repeated shootings that mourn America.
Behind his desk, 56 candles represented the victims of the massacres in all US States and Territories.
He claimed that too many places in everyday life had become battlefields, killing grounds after the shootings at Uvalde Elementary school, a Buffalo grocery, and Wednesday's shootings inside a Tulsa Hospital.
Joe Biden demanded a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons being sold in the United States. This was as he did between 1994 and 2004. He was aware of Congress' difficulty in passing such a measure, as his party has a small majority. However, he said: "We must at minimum raise the legal age to purchase such weapons from 18 to 21."
He called for the banning of high-capacity magazines and the strengthening criminal or psychological background checks on potential buyers. The vote was also on a text that requires individuals to keep their guns locked up.
He stated that in the last 20 years, schoolchildren have been killed by gunfire more than all the police and soldiers who died on duty. Think about it.
According to the Democratic president, the second amendment of the American Constitution that guarantees the right for a person to possess a weapon "is not absolute".
He said, "I support the action (...) a small group Republican and Democratic senators are trying to find ways, but my God the fact that the majority Republicans in the Senate don't want any of those proposals even debated or put on the ballot, I find that unacceptable.
During his 17-minute speech, he said that "We cannot betray again the American people." "It's time for the Senate do something.
"Thanks, Mr. President," Senator Chris Murphy tweeted. We must do something. We can do it," said this Connecticut elected official, who was forever marked by Sandy Hook's shooting (26 deaths, including 20 children), and leads the discussion between Republicans, Democrats, and Democrats.
This group faces the challenge of finding measures that can be approved by ten Republican senators. This is essential due to the Senate's qualified majority. Conservatives strongly object to any measure that would violate the rights "law-abiding citizens" in a country where over 30% of adults own at minimum one firearm.
The Senate is currently focusing on a few proposals, such background checks for arms buyers. This is something that associations have long demanded.
The Senate's ongoing negotiations could succeed in a place where none of the others have succeeded, even those that were started under Barack Obama following the Sandy Hook massacre. On Twitter, Senator Chris Murphy stated that there is "a growing momentum for our to get something done."
Republican Senator Pat Toomey expressed his optimism as well.
On Thursday, the elected House of Representatives debated another important bill, which would prohibit, as Joe Biden requested, the sale of semiautomatic rifles to anyone under 21 years old and high-capacity magazines. .
A group of Republicans has already called these measures "ineffective", reckless and un-American, and they will be up for a vote in Congress next week. They cannot be adopted in their current form in the Senate, so it seems unlikely that they will be.
