Following recent shootings, Biden delivers speech on guns

Groups toughen fight for gun control in the US 3:39

(CNN) --

President Joe Biden will deliver a rare evening address on guns to pressure US lawmakers to take action as the United States grapples with another mass shooting, the White House said.

The speech will be held on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

ET from the Cross Hall of the White House.

Biden plans to discuss "the recent tragic mass shootings and the need for Congress to act to pass common sense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is claiming lives every day," the White House said in announcing the speech.

• OPINION |

  This is what happened when 3 countries that experienced mass shootings did something about it

Biden had been privately considering making a speech about the recent mass shootings even before four people were killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday night, his aides say.

Discussions continued through Thursday morning, and the president finally decided to speak at the White House before leaving Washington for a few days.

He has been reported three times in the last three weeks about mass shootings.

He was spending time with his family at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, when his national security adviser told him that 10 people had been shot to death in a grocery store in a racist attack in Buffalo, New York.

He was flying back from his first trip to Asia when aides delivered the latest on a gunman who opened fire in an elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas.

And he was in Washington Wednesday night when he got the third report, this time for a shooting at a medical building in Tulsa.

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The comments will amount to Biden's most effusive speech on guns since the massacre at a Texas elementary school.

Biden on visit to Uvalde: The pain is evident 0:46

Since then, there have been a number of additional mass shootings in states across the country, including Tulsa on Wednesday.

That shooting left five dead, including the gunman.

In the hours after the Texas massacre, Biden delivered an emotional seven-minute speech at the White House, calling the repeated gun killings of Americans "sick."

"Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?"

she asked.

Since then, however, Biden has only selectively waded into the gun control debate, stopping short of endorsing any specific legislative action to prevent further killings.

On Wednesday, the president expressed scant optimism that Congress would agree to new gun control legislation, even as a bipartisan group of senators meets to weigh options.

“I served in Congress for 36 years.

I'm never totally sure,” Biden said when asked if he thought lawmakers would agree to new gun laws.

"Depends.

So I don't know," Biden said.

"I haven't been in the negotiations that are going on right now."

• These 35 countries, unlike the US, have strict laws on the possession of firearms

The lukewarm response was an indication that Biden is wary of associating himself too much with nascent efforts on Capitol Hill to reach a gun control compromise.

While Biden said on Tuesday he would talk to lawmakers about guns, the White House later said he would only get involved when the time is right.

Both Biden and his advisers have suggested they have exhausted their options on executive action to address weapons, though they continue to explore avenues for unilateral action.

"There's the Constitution. I can't dictate these things. I can do the things I've done, and whatever executive action I can take I'll continue to take. But I can't ban a gun, I can't change background checks. I can't do that." he said Monday.

Speaking a day after consoling families in Texas, Biden expressed limited hope that certain Republicans, such as Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and one of his main allies, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, could be convinced to support some kind of new gun laws.

“I don't know, I think there is an understanding on the part of rational Republicans, and I consider McConnell a rational Republican, Cornyn as well.

There is an acknowledgment on their part that they cannot continue like this,” he said.

McConnell has appointed Cornyn to start talks with Democrats about some kind of legislation to prevent more mass shootings, though discussions are still in their preliminary stages.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who participated in a bipartisan meeting Wednesday on gun safety, said he and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham are in talks about changes to red flag laws and there is still work to be done." meaningful" to do.

The senators seek to strengthen state laws that allow authorities to take guns away from people considered at risk, known as red flag laws.

Blumenthal called the conversation "productive and encouraging" and said the negotiators "everyone talks multiple times a day."

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would introduce legislation to ban military-style assault weapons next week as the chamber moves to address gun violence.

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