With disgust evident in his voice, President Joe Biden railed against lawmakers who consistently block gun control reform in the United States, and mourned the loss of at least 18 school children, recounting his experience as Vice President during the Sandy Hook shooting of 2012.
Biden arrived in Washington DC Tuesday night from his first trip to Asia as President, where he met with Asian leaders. He said he learned about this latest shooting on the flight back, and he questioned why these shootings are so frequent in America.
What struck me on that 17 hour flight…was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why? They have mental health problems. They had domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost. But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that happened in America,” he said
“Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to the courage to deal with -to stand up the lobbies. It’s time to turn this pain into action,” Biden said.
Biden also called for an assault weapons ban, something he achieved during his tenure as a senator but has since been rolled back.
“We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled. The idea that an 18 year old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons, it’s just wrong. What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for accept to kill someone?” Biden said.
President Biden noted that it has been 3,448 days since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
“10 years since I stood up at a high school in Connecticut, a grade school in Connecticut where another gunman massacred 26 people including 20 first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gun fires reported on school grounds.”
The President listed a few of those shooting incidents including those at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and Oxford High School in Michigan.
“When you include mass shootings at places like movie theaters, houses of worship, as we saw just 10 days ago at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. I am sick and tired of it. We have to act and don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage,” he said.
The President closed his remarks by offering his prayers for the parents of the children who were killed today.
“Our prayer tonight, was for those parents, lying in bed and trying to figure out: Will I be able to sleep again? What do I say to my other children? What happens tomorrow?”
“May God bless the loss of innocent life on this sad day. And May the Lord be near the brokenhearted and save those crushed his spirit. Cause they’re going to need a lot of help. A lot of our prayers. God love you.”
Source-ABC
