Firmly Asking The US Congress To Ban Assault Weapons, President Biden: For God's Sake, How Many More Massacres Are We Willing To Witness?

JAKARTA - United States President Joe Biden emphatically said enough, against armed violence, asked Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures, to tackle the country's repeated mass shootings.

Speaking from the White House, in a speech broadcast live on primetime, President Biden asked a state shocked by the recent shootings at a school in Texas, a grocery store in New York and a medical building in Oklahoma, how many more lives were lost. needed to change America's gun laws.

"For God's sake, how many more massacres are we willing to accept?" asked President Biden, citing Reuters, June 3.

President Biden described visiting Uvalde, Texas, where the school shooting took place, specifically at Robb Elementary School. "I can't help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, right here in the United States."

The president, who is a Democrat, has called for a number of actions that Republicans in Congress have opposed, including banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, or, if that is not possible, raising the minimum age for buying such weapons to 21 from 18.

In addition, President Biden also urged the lifting of the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from prosecution for violence perpetrated by people who carry their guns.

"We can't let the American people down again," he said, urging Republicans, particularly in the US Senate, to allow a bill with gun control measures to be voted on.

He stressed that if Congress does not act, Americans will make this issue central when they vote in November's midterm elections.

Meanwhile, the gun lobby conducted by the National Rifle Association said in a statement President Biden's proposal would violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

"This is not a real solution, not true leadership, and not what America needs," he said.

The United States, which has a higher gun death rate than any other wealthy nation, has been rocked in recent weeks by the mass shootings of 10 blacks in upstate New York, 19 children and two teachers in Texas, and two doctors, a receptionist, and patients in Oklahoma.

Lawmakers are seeking steps to expand background checks and pass a 'red flag' law, which would allow law enforcement officers to take guns from people with mental illness.

However, any new action faces steep hurdles from Republicans, particularly in the Senate, and the move to ban assault weapons does not have enough support going forward.

The second amendment to the US Constitution protects the right of Americans to bear arms. However, President Biden said the amendments were not absolute, adding that the new measures he endorsed were not aimed at taking people's weapons away.

"After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing was done," President Biden said, marking a list of mass shootings spanning more than two decades.

"This time it can't be true," he said.

More than 18.000 people have died from gun violence in the United States so far in 2022, including through homicide and suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group.