Home Holds Listening to on Gun Violence: Watch Dwell

House Holds Hearing on Gun Violence: Watch Live - The New York Times

President Biden gave an tackle on the White Home on Thursday calling for Congress to cross a number of gun management measures after a spate of current mass shootings. The next is a transcript of his remarks, as recorded by The New York Instances.

Memorial Day, this previous Monday, Jill and I visited Arlington Nationwide Cemetery. As we entered these hallowed grounds, we noticed rows and rows of crosses among the many rows of headstones and different emblems of perception, honoring those that paid the last word value on battlefields world wide.

The day earlier than, we visited Uvalde — Uvalde, Texas. In entrance of Robb Elementary Faculty, we stood earlier than 21 crosses, for 19 third and fourth graders and two lecturers. On every cross, a reputation.

And close by, a photograph of every sufferer, that Jill and I reached out to the touch. Harmless victims, murdered in a classroom that had been changed into a killing area. Standing there in that small city, like so many different communities throughout America, I couldn’t assist however suppose there are too many different faculties, too many different on a regular basis locations which have turn into killing fields, battlefields, right here in America.

We stood in such a spot simply 12 days earlier than, throughout from a grocery retailer in Buffalo, New York, memorializing 10 fellow Individuals — a partner, a mum or dad, a grandparent, a sibling, gone ceaselessly. At each locations, we spent hours with lots of of relations who have been damaged, and whose lives won’t ever be the identical. They’d one message for all of us: Do one thing. Simply do one thing. For God’s sake, do one thing.

After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been executed. This time, that may’t be true. This time, we should truly do one thing. The problem we face is certainly one of conscience and customary sense.

For therefore a lot of you at dwelling, I wish to be very clear. This isn’t about taking away anybody’s weapons. It’s not about vilifying gun house owners. Actually, we consider we needs to be treating accountable gun house owners for instance of how each gun proprietor ought to behave.

I respect the tradition and the custom and the considerations of lawful gun house owners. On the identical time, the Second Modification, like all different rights, isn’t absolute. It was Justice Scalia who wrote, and I quote: “Like most rights, the appropriate Second Modification — the rights granted by the Second Modification aren’t limitless.” Not limitless. It by no means has been.

There have at all times been limitations on what weapons you may personal in America. For instance, machine weapons have been federally regulated for practically 90 years, and that is nonetheless a free nation. This isn’t about taking away anybody’s rights. It’s about defending youngsters. It’s about defending households. It’s about defending complete communities. It’s about defending our freedoms to go to highschool, to a grocery retailer, to a church, with out being shot and killed.

Based on new knowledge simply launched by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, weapons are the No. 1 killer of youngsters in the USA of America. The No. 1 killer. Greater than automotive accidents, greater than most cancers. Over the past 20 years, extra school-age youngsters have died from weapons than on-duty cops and active-duty army mixed.

Take into consideration that. Extra youngsters than on-duty cops killed by weapons. Extra youngsters than troopers killed by weapons. For God’s sake. How rather more carnage are we prepared to simply accept? What number of extra harmless American lives should be taken earlier than we are saying sufficient? Sufficient.

I do know that we are able to’t stop each tragedy, however right here’s what I consider now we have to do. Right here’s what the overwhelming majority of the American individuals consider we should do. Right here’s what the households in Buffalo and Uvalde, in Texas, instructed us we should do.

We have to ban assault weapons and excessive capability magazines. And if we are able to’t ban assault weapons, then we must always elevate the age to buy them from 18 to 21. Strengthen the background checks, enact protected storage legal guidelines and “crimson flag” legal guidelines. Repeal the immunity that protects gun producers from legal responsibility. Handle the psychological well being disaster deepening the trauma of gun violence, and as a consequence of that violence.

These are rational, commonsense measures. Right here’s what all of it means. All of it means this: We should always reinstate the assault weapons ban on excessive capability magazines that we handed in 1994 with bipartisan help in Congress and the help of legislation enforcement.

9 classes of semiautomatic weapons have been included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s. And within the 10 years it was legislation, mass shootings went down. However after Republicans let the legislation expire in 2004, and people weapons have been allowed to be bought once more, mass shootings tripled. These are the information.

Just a few years in the past, the household of the inventor of the AR-15 mentioned he would have been horrified to know his design was getting used to slaughter youngsters and different harmless lives as an alternative of getting used as a army weapon on the battlefields, because it was designed. That’s what it was designed for.

Sufficient, sufficient. We should always restrict what number of rounds a weapon can maintain. Why in God’s title ought to an strange citizen have the ability to buy an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines that permit mass shooters fireplace lots of of bullets in a matter of minutes? The harm was so devastating in Uvalde mother and father needed to do DNA swabs to establish the stays of their youngsters. 9- and 10-year-old youngsters.

Sufficient. We should always develop background checks to maintain weapons out of the fingers of felons, fugitives and people underneath restraining orders. Stronger background checks are one thing that the overwhelming majority of Individuals, together with the vast majority of gun house owners, agree on.

I additionally consider we must always have protected storage legal guidelines, and private legal responsibility for not locking up your gun. The shooter in Sandy Hook got here from a house stuffed with weapons. They have been too simple to entry. That’s how he acquired the weapons. The weapon he used to kill his mom, after which homicide 26 individuals, together with 20 first graders.

When you personal a weapon, you may have a accountability to safe it. Each accountable gun proprietor agrees. To verify nobody else can have entry to it. To lock it up. To have set off locks. And when you don’t, and one thing dangerous occurs, try to be held accountable.

We also needs to have nationwide crimson flag legal guidelines so {that a} mum or dad, a instructor, a counselor can flag for a court docket {that a} little one, a scholar, a affected person is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates or experiencing suicidal ideas — it makes them a hazard to themselves or to others. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have crimson flag legal guidelines. The Delaware legislation is called after my son, Lawyer Normal Beau Biden.

Fort Hood, Texas, 2009. 13 useless and greater than 30 injured. Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Fla., 2018. Seventeen useless, 17 injured. In each locations, numerous others struggling with invisible wounds. Purple flag legal guidelines may have stopped each these shooters.

In Uvalde, the shooter was 17 when he requested his sister to purchase him an assault weapon, realizing he’d be denied as a result of he was too younger to buy one himself. She refused. However as quickly as he turned 18, he bought two assault weapons for himself. As a result of in Texas, you may be 18 years outdated and purchase an assault weapon, although you may’t purchase a pistol in Texas till you’re 21.

If we are able to’t ban assault weapons, as we must always, we should at the least elevate the age to have the ability to buy one to 21. Look, I do know some people will say 18-year-olds can serve within the army and fireplace these weapons, however that’s with coaching and supervision by the best-trained specialists on the earth. Don’t inform me elevating the age gained’t make a distinction. Sufficient.

We should always repeal the legal responsibility defend that usually protects gun producers from being sued for the loss of life and destruction attributable to their weapons. They’re the one business on this nation that has that type of immunity.

Think about. Think about if the tobacco business had been immune from being sued, the place we’d be in the present day. The gun business’s particular protections are outrageous. It should finish.

And let there be no mistake concerning the psychological trauma that gun violence leaves behind. Think about being that little lady, that courageous little lady in Uvalde, who smeared blood off her murdered pal’s physique onto her personal face, to lie nonetheless among the many corpses in her classroom and faux she was useless with a view to keep alive. Think about. Think about what it might be like for her to stroll down the hallway of any college once more.

Think about what it’s like for kids who expertise this sort of trauma each day at school, on the streets, in communities all throughout America. Think about what it’s like for thus many mother and father to hug their youngsters goodbye within the morning, unsure whether or not they’ll come again dwelling. Sadly, too many individuals don’t need to think about that in any respect.

Even earlier than the pandemic, younger individuals have been already hurting. There’s a severe youth psychological well being disaster on this nation. Now we have to do one thing about it. That’s why psychological well being is the guts of my unity agenda that I specified by the State of the Union tackle this yr.

We should present extra college counselors; extra college nurses; extra psychological well being companies for college students and for lecturers. Extra individuals volunteering as mentors to assist younger individuals succeed. Extra privateness safety and assets to maintain youngsters protected from the harms of social media.

This unity agenda gained’t totally heal the wounded souls, however it is going to assist. It issues.

I simply instructed you what I’d do. The query now could be: What is going to the congress do?

The Home of Representatives already handed key measures we want: Increasing background checks to cowl practically all gun gross sales, together with at gun reveals and on-line gross sales. Eliminating a loophole that permits a gun sale to undergo after three enterprise days, even when the background test has not been accomplished.

And the Home is planning much more motion subsequent week. Protected storage necessities. The banning of high-capacity magazines. Elevating the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21. Federal crimson flag legislation. Codifying my ban on ghost weapons that don’t have serial numbers and may’t be traced. And harder legal guidelines to stop gun trafficking and straw purchases.

This time, now we have to take the time to do one thing. And this time, it’s time for the Senate to do one thing.

However, as we all know, with a view to get something executed within the Senate, we want a minimal of 10 Republican senators. I help the bipartisan efforts that embody a small group of Democrats and Republican senators looking for a method. However my God. The truth that the vast majority of the Senate Republicans don’t need any of those proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I discover unconscionable.

We are able to’t fail the American individuals once more. Since Uvalde, simply over per week in the past, there have been 20 different mass shootings in America, every with 4 or extra individuals killed or injured, together with yesterday, at a hospital in Tulsa, Okla. A shooter intentionally focused a surgeon utilizing an assault weapon he purchased only a few hours earlier than his rampage that left a surgeon, one other physician, a receptionist and a affected person useless, and plenty of extra injured. That doesn’t depend the carnage we see each single day that doesn’t make the headlines.

I’ve been on this battle for a very long time. I understand how laborious it’s, however I’ll by no means hand over. And if Congress fails, I consider this time, a majority of the American individuals gained’t hand over, both. I consider the vast majority of you’ll act to show your outrage into making this problem central to your vote. Sufficient, sufficient, sufficient.

Over the subsequent 17 days, the households in Uvalde will proceed burying their useless. It can take that lengthy, partly, as a result of it’s a city the place everybody is aware of everybody, and daily they may honor each they misplaced. Jill and I met with the proprietor and workers of the funeral dwelling, who was being robust, robust, robust to deal with their very own. And the individuals of Uvalde mourned, as they do over the subsequent 17 days. What is going to we be doing as a nation?

Jill and I met with the sister of the instructor who was murdered and whose husband died of a coronary heart assault two days later, abandoning 4 stunning, orphaned youngsters. All now orphans.

The sister requested us: What may she say? What may she inform her nieces and nephews? Probably the most heartbreaking moments that I can bear in mind. All I may suppose to say was, I instructed her to carry them tight. Maintain them tight.

After visiting the varsity, we attended Mass at Sacred Coronary heart Catholic Church with Father Eddy. Within the pews, household and mates held one another tightly. As Archbishop Gustavo spoke, he requested the kids in attendance to come back up on the altar and sit within the altar with him, as he spoke. There wasn’t sufficient room, so a mother and her younger son sat subsequent to Jill and me within the first pew.

And as we left the church, a grandmother who had simply misplaced her granddaughter handed me a handwritten letter. It learn, quote: “Erase the invisible line that’s dividing our nation. Provide you with an answer and repair what’s damaged and make the adjustments which are essential to stop this occurring once more.” Finish of quote.

My fellow Individuals, sufficient. Sufficient. It’s time for every of us to do our half. It’s time to behave. For the kids we’ve misplaced. For the kids we are able to save. For the nation we love. Let’s hear the decision and the cry. Let’s meet the second. Allow us to lastly do one thing.

God bless the households who’re hurting. God bless you all. From a hymn primarily based within the 91st Psalm, sung in my church: “Could he elevate you up on eagle’s wings and bear you on the breath of daybreak. Make you to shine just like the solar and maintain you within the palm of his hand.”

That’s my prayer for all of you. God bless you.


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