WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday hailed a new bipartisan law designed to reduce gun violence as “real progress” but said “more needs to be done” after just 16 days in effect, with the legislation already has been overshadowed by yet another mass shooting.
The bill, passed in the wake of recent gun attacks in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, gradually tightens requirements for young people to buy guns, bans firearms from more domestic abusers and helps local governments temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed as dangerous.
But Monday morning’s “celebration” at the White House came a week after a gunman in Highland Park, Illinois, killed seven people at an Independence Day parade, a stark reminder of the limitations of the new law to address the American phenomenon of mass gun violence. And it comes as Democratic governors have taken up the mantle of offering outrage in the face of gun violence.
Biden hosted hundreds of guests on the South Lawn, including a bipartisan group of lawmakers who crafted and supported the legislation, as well as local officials — including Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering — as well as the families of victims of both mass shootings and everyday gun violence.
“Because of your work, your advocacy, your courage, lives will be saved today and tomorrow because of it,” Biden said.
On Saturday, Biden invited Americans to share with him via text — a new White House communications strategy — their stories of how they’ve been affected by gun violence, tweeting that “I’m hosting a celebration of the passage of the Safer Communities Act . ” He told some of their stories Monday of people traumatized by shootings and children orphaned by gun violence.
The law is the most impactful measure against gun violence Congress has approved since a now-expired assault weapons ban was passed in 1993. Still, gun control advocates — and even White House officials — say it’s premature to victory is declared.
“There’s just nothing to celebrate here,” said Igor Volsky, director of the private group Guns Down America.
“It’s historic, but it’s also the bare minimum of what Congress should do,” Wolski said. “And as the July 4th shooting reminded us, and there have been so many other gun deaths since then, the gun violence crisis is that much more urgent.”
Wolsky’s group, along with other gun violence advocacy groups, were scheduled to host a news conference Monday outside the White House calling on Biden to create a special White House office to address gun violence with greater urgency .
Biden has left gun control policy to his Domestic Policy Council, rather than creating a special office, as he did to tackle climate change, or the gender policy council he created to promote access to reproductive health.
“We have a president who really hasn’t met the moment who has chosen to act as a bystander on this issue,” Wolski said. “For whatever reason, the administration flatly refuses to have a senior official run this issue in government.”
The president signed the bipartisan gun bill on June 25, calling it a “historic achievement” at the time.
On Monday, Biden said the law’s passage should be a call to action for further action to reduce gun violence.
“Are we going to match thoughts and prayers with action,” Biden asked. “I say yes. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
White House officials said Biden doesn’t see passage of the bill as a finish line, but rather a foundation to build on. The shooting in Illinois happened nine days after the bill was signed.
“I recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in nearly 30 years that includes actions that will save lives,” Biden said after the July 4 shooting. “But there is still much work to be done, and I will not give up on the fight against the epidemic of gun violence.”
On Friday, Biden responded to the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, noting how the shooting shocked people in Japan. The country has a strikingly low rate of gun violence compared to the US, where thousands of people have been killed by guns this year.
Most of the $13 billion in spending under the new law will be used to strengthen mental health programs and for schools that were targeted by the shooters in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Florida; and many other gun massacres. It was the product of weeks of closed-door negotiations by a bipartisan group of senators who came up with a compromise.
It does not include much tougher restrictions that Democrats and Biden have long championed, such as a ban on assault weapons and background checks for all gun deals. Biden was expected to repeat his call for those tougher measures on Monday, but prospects for further congressional action are dim.
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