\n
WASHINGTON , 11 Jul (AP) President Joe Biden is hosting a \u201ccelebration\u201d of a new bipartisan law meant to reduce gun violence that, after just 16 days in effect, already has been overshadowed by yet another mass shooting.<\/p>\n
The bill, passed after recent gun rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, incrementally toughens requirements for young people to buy guns, denies firearms to more domestic abusers, and helps local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous.<\/p>\n
But the South Lawn event on Monday morning comes 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 in addressing 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.<\/p>\n
Biden on Saturday invited Americans to share with him via text \u2014 a new White House communications strategy \u2014 their stories of how they\u2019ve been impacted by gun violence, tweeting that \u201cI\u2019m hosting a celebration of the passage of the Safer Communities Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
The law is the the most impactful firearms violence measure Congress has approved since enacting a now-expired assault weapons ban in 1993. Yet gun control advocates \u2014 and even White House officials \u2014 say it\u2019s premature to declare victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s simply not much to celebrate here,\u201d said Igor Volsky, director of the private group Guns Down America.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s historic, but it\u2019s also the very bare minimum of what Congress should do,\u201d Volsky said. \u201cAnd as we were reminded by the shooting on July 4, and there\u2019s so many other gun deaths that have occurred since then, the crisis of of gun violence is just far more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volsky\u2019s group, along with other gun violence advocacy groups, was set to host a news conference on Monday outside the White House calling on Biden to stand up a dedicated office at the White House to address gun violence with a greater sense of urgency.<\/p>\n
Biden has left gun control policy to his Domestic Policy Council, rather than establishing a dedicated office like he stood up to address climate change or the gender policy council he established to promote reproductive health access.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a president who really hasn\u2019t met the moment, who has chosen to act as a bystander on this issue,\u201d Volsky said. \u201cFor some reason the administration absolutely refuses to have a senior official who can drive this issue across government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president signed the bipartisan gun bill into law on June 25, calling it \u201ca historic achievement\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime is of the essence. Lives will be saved,\u201d Biden said in the Roosevelt Room during a hastily arranged signing ceremony before he flew to Europe. Referencing the families of shooting victims he has met, the president said: \u201cTheir message to us was, \u2018Do something.\u2019 How many times did we hear that? \u2018Just do something. For God\u2019s sake, just do something.\u2019 Today we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House officials said Biden doesn\u2019t see the passage of the bill as the finish line, but rather a foundation that needs to be built on. The Illinois shooting occurred nine days after the bill signing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in almost 30 years into law, which includes actions that will save lives,\u201d Biden said after July 4th shooting. \u201cBut there is much more work to do, and I\u2019m not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, Biden responded to the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by taking note of how the shooting had shocked people in Japan. The country has a strikingly low incidence of gun violence compared to the U.S., which has experienced thousands of gun deaths already this year.<\/p>\n
Most of the new law\u2019s $13 billion in spending would be used for bolstering mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted by shooters in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and many other gun massacres. It was the product of weeks of closed-door negotiations by a bipartisan group of senators who emerged with a compromise.<\/p>\n
It does not include far tougher restrictions that Democrats and Biden have long championed, such as a ban on assault-type weapons and background checks for all gun transactions. Biden on Monday was expected to reiterate his call for those tougher measures, but prospects are slim for any further congressional action.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON , 11 Jul (AP) President Joe Biden is hosting a \u201ccelebration\u201d of a new bipartisan law meant to reduce gun violence that, after just 16 days in effect, already has been overshadowed by yet another mass shooting. The bill, passed after recent gun rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, incrementally toughens requirements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-195174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}