One day after President Obama unveiled his far-reaching proposal for gun policy reform at an emotional White House news conference, Vice President Biden on Thursday renewed the administration’s call for action, telling a summit of the nation’s mayors that the issue is “more urgent and immediate” than any other facing the country.
Speaking at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Biden devoted the entirety of his remarks to delivering a point-by-point defense of the White House gun agenda that he helped to spearhead, using stark, often personal language.
Graphic
President Obama proposed expansive gun-control policies aimed at curbing gun violence. The Obama administration can implement about half of the proposals, but the others — arguably some of the more critical initiatives — will require congressional approval.
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“I know we don’t have absolute unanimity in this ballroom -- nor do we in any ballroom -- but we all know, everyone acknowledges we have to do something,” Biden told the crowd of mayors gathered in a ballroom of the Hilton hotel down the street from the White House. “We have to act. And I hope we all agree that there’s a need to respond to the carnage on our streets and in our schools.”
“I hope we all agree that mass shootings like the ones that we witnessed in Newtown 34 days ago cannot continue to be tolerated,” he added, calling the tragedy one that “in all my years in public life, I think, has affected the public psyche in a way that I’ve never seen before.”
Since being tapped last month to serve as the Obama administration’s point man on gun policy reform in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary-school shooting, Biden has met with more than 200 groups representing a range of stakeholders on the issue.
He said to the mayors Thursday that “no group was more consequential or instrumental in the shaping of the document we put together for the president than all of you in this room.”
In the response, however, there were early signs of the political difficulty the White House faces in pressing Congress to move forward on gun-control legislation.
The mayors and others in the ballroom applauded several times throughout Biden’s speech, including when the vice president called for universal background checks and argued that high capacity magazines “aren’t worth the risk.” They also cheered Biden’s call for increased funding of local law-enforcement efforts and for the mental-health provisions of the Obama administration’s new plan.
But the applause was not universal, and the crowd responded with silence for much of Biden’s nearly hour-long address.
The vice president acknowledged that the White House is likely to come under criticism for many of its new gun proposals, both from opponents of the provisions as well as from supporters who are questioning why the Obama administration has not moved with similar urgency on other policy matters, such as immigration reform.
“Look, folks,” Biden said, directly addressing those critics. “Presidents don’t get to choose what they deal with. They deal with what is before them and then what they’d like to long-term.”
He also pledged that the horror of what transpired in Newtown means that “this time will not be like times that have come before.”
“Newtown has shocked the nation,” he said. “The carnage of our streets is no longer able to be ignored. We’re going to take this fight to the halls of Congress. We’re going to take it beyond that. We’re going to take it to the American people.”
Speaking at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Biden devoted the entirety of his remarks to delivering a point-by-point defense of the White House gun agenda that he helped to spearhead, using stark, often personal language.
Graphic
President Obama proposed expansive gun-control policies aimed at curbing gun violence. The Obama administration can implement about half of the proposals, but the others — arguably some of the more critical initiatives — will require congressional approval.
Philip Rucker and Ed O’Keefe President Obama proposed far-reaching gun-control measures and urged congressional action.
Glenn Kessler FACT CHECKER | Pro-gun group claims ‘armed guards’ protect his children at their private school. That’s wrong.
Aaron Blake THE FIX | Gun rights advocates say the term creates a false impression of what they are.
“I know we don’t have absolute unanimity in this ballroom -- nor do we in any ballroom -- but we all know, everyone acknowledges we have to do something,” Biden told the crowd of mayors gathered in a ballroom of the Hilton hotel down the street from the White House. “We have to act. And I hope we all agree that there’s a need to respond to the carnage on our streets and in our schools.”
“I hope we all agree that mass shootings like the ones that we witnessed in Newtown 34 days ago cannot continue to be tolerated,” he added, calling the tragedy one that “in all my years in public life, I think, has affected the public psyche in a way that I’ve never seen before.”
Since being tapped last month to serve as the Obama administration’s point man on gun policy reform in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary-school shooting, Biden has met with more than 200 groups representing a range of stakeholders on the issue.
He said to the mayors Thursday that “no group was more consequential or instrumental in the shaping of the document we put together for the president than all of you in this room.”
In the response, however, there were early signs of the political difficulty the White House faces in pressing Congress to move forward on gun-control legislation.
The mayors and others in the ballroom applauded several times throughout Biden’s speech, including when the vice president called for universal background checks and argued that high capacity magazines “aren’t worth the risk.” They also cheered Biden’s call for increased funding of local law-enforcement efforts and for the mental-health provisions of the Obama administration’s new plan.
But the applause was not universal, and the crowd responded with silence for much of Biden’s nearly hour-long address.
The vice president acknowledged that the White House is likely to come under criticism for many of its new gun proposals, both from opponents of the provisions as well as from supporters who are questioning why the Obama administration has not moved with similar urgency on other policy matters, such as immigration reform.
“Look, folks,” Biden said, directly addressing those critics. “Presidents don’t get to choose what they deal with. They deal with what is before them and then what they’d like to long-term.”
He also pledged that the horror of what transpired in Newtown means that “this time will not be like times that have come before.”
“Newtown has shocked the nation,” he said. “The carnage of our streets is no longer able to be ignored. We’re going to take this fight to the halls of Congress. We’re going to take it beyond that. We’re going to take it to the American people.”