WASHINGTON: Decla­ring “enough, enough!” US President Joe Biden on Thursday urged Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other sensible gun control measures to address a string of mass shootings that have struck the United States.

Speaking from the White House, in a speech broadcast live in primetime, Biden asked a country stunned by the recent shootings of school children in Texas, at a medical building in Oklahoma and at a Buffalo, New York, grocery story how much it would take to change gun laws in America. “For God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden asked.

The president, a Democrat, called for a number of measures historically opposed by Republicans in Congress, including banning the sale of assault weapons, or, if that were not possible, raising the minimum age to buy those weapons to 21 from 18, and repealing the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from being sued for violence perpetrated by people carrying their guns.

“We can’t fail the American people again,” Biden said, pressing Republicans to allow bills with gun control measures to come up for a vote.

Lawmakers are looking at measures to expand background checks and pass “red flag” laws that would allow law enforcement officials to take guns away from people suffering from mental illness. But any new measures face steep hurdles from Republicans, particularly in the US Senate, and moves to ban assault weapons do not have enough support to advance. Despite the political challenges, Biden urged Congress to act.

“After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done,” Biden said, listing high-profile mass shootings over the past decade. “This time that can’t be true.”

Gun safety advocates have pushed Biden to take stronger measures on his own to curb gun violence, but the White House wants Congress to pass legislation that would have more lasting impact than any presidential order.

A US House of Repres­entatives committee on Thursday was working on a bill aimed at toughening national gun laws, though the measure has little chance of passing the Senate.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2022