Biden said it's 'about time' for lawmakers to move on his assault weapons ban trends now
President Joe Biden on Tuesday renewed his call for Congress to pass an assault weapons ban – even as he acknowledged the limitations of his own authority to get something done without buy-in from lawmakers.
Biden raised the issue as he left the White House for North Carolina after addressing the Nashville school shooting at a pre-scheduled event on Monday.
'I have gone the full extent of my executive authority, on my own. I think it's about time,' Biden told reporters at the White House.
'The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people want an assault weapons ban,' he continued. 'I can't do anything except plead with Congress to act.'
President Joe Biden said he had reached the 'full extent of my executive authority,' and called on Congress to enact an assault weapons ban. A previous ban on assault-style weapons was in place for a decade, and expired in 2004
His pleadings come as key lawmakers are already stating their doubts about the ability to move legislation – even after a shooter at The Covenant School school six, in just the latest of a string of mass shootings at schools, houses of worship, shopping centers, and other locations.
Support for reinstating the expired ban appears to be dropping – even as the White House invokes an increase in mass shootings since it was allowed to expire in 2004.
Support was at 47 per cent compared to 51 per cent who were against it in an ABC News / Washington Post poll released last month. That was a steep drop from 2019, including a 9-point drop in support for a ban an da 10-point rise in opposition to it.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday renewed her call for Republicans in Congress to get behind a bill to ban so-called assault weapons – after senior lawmakers expressed doubt there was sufficient support to enact any major new measures after the Nashville school shooting.
'We need gun safety laws, comprehensive gun safety laws. We need to ban assault rifles, those weapons of war do not belong on our streets,' she told MSNBC Tuesday. 'They do not belong in schools ... This is unacceptable. You're going to continue to hear from the president call this out,' she said.
She spoke a day after she said at the White House that 'enough is enough' following the mass shooting at The Covenant School outside Nashville – the latest in a long line of school shootings. Her comments Tuesday came on a day when authorities released chilling body cam footage of the shooting that left six people dead.
Jean-Pierre spoke from the White House grounds after Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who helped broker the most extensive gun legislation in years in the last Congress, said there was little appetite to do more legislatively in the wake of still more shootings.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called for 'comprehensive gun safety laws' and renewed a call for an assault weapons ban after the Nashville school shooting
'I would say we've gone about as
