“Gun violence has become an epidemic in America,” President Joe Biden said during his first address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night
President Joe Biden asks Congress to ban assault weapons
He said more than 50 women have been shot and killed each month by an intimate partner.
“Let’s think and let’s save a life,” he said.
The president’s comments came amid a wave of mass shootings in the United States over the past six weeks.
On March 16, eight people – six Asian women – were fatally shot at three Atlanta-area spas.
Less than a week later, on March 22, 10 people were killed at a Colorado supermarket.
Since then, four people – including a 9-year-old boy – were killed at an SS shopping complex in Orange, California; a former NFL player killed six people, including themselves, at his doctor’s home; three members of a Brooklyn family and four members of a family in a Dallas suburb were killed by relatives who then committed suicide; and one person was killed and five were injured at a custom cabinet store in Bryan, Texas.
Earlier this month, the President announced a series of executive actions on gun control, including inconsistent “ghost guns,” and promotes anti-gun violence programs and limiting the availability of stabilizer suspenders.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a 10-year ban on certain semiautomatic firearms and large-capacity magazines.
When the ban expired, Congress was unable to renew it.
Other efforts to pass gun control measures have been severely curtailed as Republicans in both the House and Senate have learned that the ban was not a success.
