Biden Calls For Ban On ‘Assault Weapons,’ Magazines Following Boulder Shooting

Washington, DC – President Joe Biden used the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado to call for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” on Tuesday.

President Biden said at a White House press briefing on March 23 that he might take executive action on gun violence, NBC News reported.

“As president I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep people safe,” he said.

Then the President called for a ban on assault-style weapons like the popular AR-15-style pistol used by the gunman in Boulder, and a ban on high-capacity magazines, NBC News reported.

“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future, and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” President Biden said.

“We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again,” the President said. “I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again.”

“We can close the loopholes in our background check system – including the Charleston loophole,” he continued. “That’s one of the best tools we have right now to prevent gun violence.”

Then President Biden called on the Senate to pass the two anti-gun House bills that currently have a slim chance of being passed by the other chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has promised that the Senate will take up the gun control legislation for votes but NBC News reported that he doesn’t have the 10 GOP votes needed to override a filibuster.

“And, and we can save lives, increasing the background checks that are supposed to occur, eliminate assault weapons, and the size of magazines – don’t know all the detail on that yet. But I’ll be talking to you more later today or in the next couple of days about what else we know,” the President promised.

One of the Democrats’ proposed gun control measures would require background checks for nearly all gun purchases, including those transactions that involved unlicensed or private sellers, NBC News reported.

The other bill was written to close the “Charleston loophole” that allowed the sale of gun to happen if the background checks were finished in three days.

The proposed legislation would expand the review period to 10 days, according to NBC News.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) pointed to the fact that the city of Boulder had banned assault-style rifles back in 2018, NBC News reported.

However, a court blocked the ban 10 days ago.

No information has been released about the origin of the Boulder gunman’s weapon and whether it was legally owned.

Republican lawmakers pushed back and said that gun laws wouldn’t have prevented Monday’s shooting, nor would it keep banned weapons out of the hands of criminals, NBC News reported.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Democrats do the same thing every time there is a mass shooting.

“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said. “What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law abiding citizens, because that’s their political objective.”

He said he planned to reintroduce legislation that would make straw purchases of guns illegal, NBC News reported.

A straw purchase is when someone buys a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing a weapon.

Cruz’s proposed legislation will also reauthorized grants for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NBC News reported.