“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic. And it is an international embarrassment,” President Joe Biden said Thursday in the Rose Garden of the White House. “Enough, enough, enough, enough.”
“The idea that we have so many people dying every single day from gun violence in America is a blemish on our character as a nation,” Biden added, citing statistics that shows the daily number of deaths by gunfire in the US.
“They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers — members of Congress — but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence. Enough prayers. Time for some action,” the US President said.
Biden mentioned the shooting spree in Atlanta last month that left eight people dead. He mentioned the mass shooting in Boulder six days later in which 10 people died. “Between those two incidents, less than one week apart, there were more than 850 additional shootings that took the lives of more than 250 people, and left 500 injured.”
The president last month called on Congress to act on gun-control measures in the wake of two deadly mass shootings, and said it should not be a partisan issue.
Julie Gunlock, director of the Center for Progress and Innovation at the group Independent Women’s Forum, criticized Biden’s steps in a statement.