Highlighting his accomplishment in curbing gun violence, President Joe Biden on Tuesday thanked gun safety advocates while celebrating a landmark control law that has resulted in criminal charges against more than 500 violators since he signed it in June 2022.
Speaking in Washington, the president also renewed his call for Congress to pass meaningful gun control legislation — including renewing the assault weapons ban, enacting a so-called “red flag” law to keep guns from dangerous people and restricting the sale of high-capacity magazines that can hold 100 bullets or more.
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“It’s time once again, to do what I did when I was a senator: ban assault weapons,” Biden said to cheers from the audience. “Who in God’s name needs a magazine which can [kill] 200 children?”
Someone in the audience shouted: “Nobody!”
“Nobody!” Biden replied. “That’s right.”
The speech came roughly two hours after his son, Hunter Biden, was convicted on three felony-level gun charges in federal court. A jury found the younger Biden had lied on a form about his drug use when purchasing a handgun in 2018
Biden addressed Gun Sense University, an annual gathering of gun control activists convened by the nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety, to hail the two-year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The legislation, which BIden signed into law, toughened restrictions on gun trafficking and straw firearm purchases, in which one person buys a gun for another person’s use.
Touted by the White House as “the most significant federal bipartisan gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years,” the law expanded federal background checks, worked to limit untraceable “ghost guns,” and closed the background-check loophole.
The president also called on Congress to pass a national “red flag” law, which would prevent individuals found to be a danger to themselves or others from possessing guns. He also called for universal background checks, a reinstitution of the assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines.
The president’s renewed call for a ban on assault weapons, inspired enthusiastic applause along with cheers and chants of “Four more years!”
“They’re weapons of war,” the president said. “And by the way, it’s time we establish universal background checks.”
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The lively audience supported the president throughout the speech with regular chants of “Four more years” and “Let’s go, Joe!”
They also cheered when Biden reminded them about the first White House office of gun violence created last September and overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris.
The gun violence epidemic is the leading cause of premature death in the country. In 2022, more than 48,000 people died from firearm-related deaths. More than half of the deaths were suicides and approximately 40% were homicides, according to early data from the CDC.
Gun violence is also the number one killer of all American youth. Black Americans make up 60% of individuals killed by a firearm each year and they are 11.5 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than whites, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Americans bought an estimated 1.22 million guns in May 2024, according to an analysis of FBI data by The Trace.
The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s annual Gun Sense University conference brings together members of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action — volunteers and survivors of gun violence who advocate for an end to all forms of gun violence.
The organization sponsors National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange weekend, which honor survivors of gun violence and calls for a future free from gun violence. The event marked its tenth year on June 8 and 9.
The Wear Orange campaign started in honor of Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot and killed in 2013 barely one week after she was a majorette in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade.