Biden: Guns are the number 1 killer of children in the US 5:24
(CNN) --
President Joe Biden tried Thursday night to turn a series of horrific mass shootings into a spur to action, imploring 10 Republican senators to join Democrats on any new gun-related legislation.
The speech, in which he compared dead American children to American casualties in the war, came the night a House committee approved a series of proposals that most Americans could support but would not. they have a chance of overcoming a Republican deadlock in the Senate.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) immediately rejected these proposals, but some Senate Republicans are still negotiating with Democrats.
Biden has made it clear that he is willing to accept much less than the measures he prefers, such as an assault weapons ban, in exchange for real federal action.
In the speech, he laid out some of the major proposals: banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines or raising the age of purchase to 21, strengthening background checks, enacting safe storage and alert laws, repealing immunity protect gun manufacturers from liability and address the mental health crisis.
If Congress fails again this time, he called on Americans to vote in November, an acknowledgment that any legislative victory on gun safety will be hard to come by, and an unusual call for political action from the White House.
The House Judiciary Committee passed gun control legislation in the wake of recent mass shootings
Biden's proposals to stop shootings in the US 1:52
Here are some of the key moments from Biden's address to the nation on Thursday.
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"On Memorial Day last Monday, Jill and I visited Arlington National Cemetery... We saw rows and rows of crosses... honoring those who paid the ultimate price on battlefields around the world. The day before, we visited Uvalde, Texas. In front of Robb Elementary School, we stood in front of 21 crosses of 19 third and fourth graders and two teachers."
Biden opened his speech by equating those killed by domestic gun violence with those killed by America's wars abroad.
She appeared at the White House with memorial candles behind him.
"I want to be very clear. This is not about taking away anyone's guns. This is not about vilifying gun owners... I respect culture and tradition, the concerns of legal gun owners."
Here Biden responded to the main accusation of Republicans who oppose gun control measures: that the government wants to trample on their right to have guns.
His promise here will not stop those Republican concerns or attacks using these arguments against him.
"At the same time, the Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute."
Biden quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia here, noting that machine guns and other types of weapons have long been regulated.
In a statement, the NRA dismissed the speech: "Anything the president repeatedly proposes will only infringe on the rights of those law-abiding people who have never committed and will never commit a crime."
"Guns are the leading cause of death for children in America. The leading cause of death. More than car accidents, more than cancer."
More American children die from gun violence than from anything else.
The first cause used to be motor vehicles.
But in recent years, weapons have become the leading cause of death for children in the country.
Biden also argued that more children have been killed by firearms than serving police or soldiers in the past two decades, but the data for that claim was not immediately available.
"We should reinstate the assault weapons ban ... which we passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in Congress and the support of law enforcement."
Biden helped pass that law in 1994. But the bipartisan majority that supported it then is gone today.
The law expired in 2004.
The bipartisan group now trying to hammer out a fringe deal after these most recent shootings is believed not even to be considering any of these suggestions.
These are the gun control proposals that Biden laid out in his speech
Rocío Vélez: Sense of urgency cannot come in a vacuum 2:52
"Why in God's name should an ordinary citizen be able to buy an assault weapon that contains 30-round magazines that allow attackers to fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes? The damage was so devastating in Uvalde that parents they had to take DNA samples to identify the remains of their children, children aged 9 and 10.”
Like the assault weapons ban, a federal ban on high-capacity magazines expired in 2004.
"Red flag laws could have stopped these two attackers."
After calling for legislation that most Americans support but will be opposed by Senate Republicans, Biden asked for things that are currently being seriously considered by a bipartisan group on Capitol Hill.
However, New York's red flag law failed to stop the Buffalo attacker.
Texas does not have a law in this regard.
Florida passed a red flag law after a spate of shootings there and Republicans paid no political price, raising some hope among advocates of new gun laws that a national red flag effort might be possible.
"If we can't ban assault weapons like we should, we should at least raise the age to be able to buy one to 21."
Biden points out that the Uvalde attacker waited until he was 18 years old to buy weapons that his sister did not buy for him when he was 17 years old.
He argued that 18-year-old service members have supervision and training.
Waiting periods and age limits are restrictions that many Americans support and could actually reduce some of these shootings.
While a large majority of Americans support many of these individual proposals, the majority of them do not believe that gun laws should be toughened.
CNN's Harry Enten wrote about that conundrum.
7 figures that show the reluctance of the republicans in the control of arms in the USA
Groups toughen fight for gun control in the US 3:39
"Imagine, if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where it would be today. The gun industry's special protections are outrageous. It needs to end."
Biden's claim that the gun industry is the only US industry immune from lawsuits is false.
Read a CNN Fact Check.
Weaponizing lawsuits against gunmakers is something California lawmakers are considering right now, following efforts by Texas to encourage abortion-related lawsuits and social media companies.
"Imagine being that girl, that brave girl in Uvalde who smeared the blood from the body of her murdered friend on her own face to lie motionless among the corpses in her classroom and pretend she was dead to stay alive."
This is indeed a horrible and moving story.
Read this story here.
Girl recounted what she did when the attacker was in the classroom 0:50
There is a growing push among gun safety advocates to share more gruesome details in order to shock people into action.
"Even before the pandemic, people were already suffering. There is a serious mental health crisis in this country..."
Biden argued for more mental health spending here, aside from red flag laws.
It's worth noting that the majority of gun deaths are suicides: 54% in 2020.
"The House of Representatives has already passed the key measures we need, expanding background checks to cover nearly all gun sales."
These measures passed by the House have no chance of passing in the Senate, where a minority can stop almost all of the legislation.
To hear the argument against universal background checks, watch this CNN Dana Bash interview with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas.
"It's time for the Senate to do something. But as we know, to ... do anything in the Senate, we need a minimum of 10 Republican senators."
Some Democrats have refused to end the filibuster of certain laws.
In the Senate, 60 votes are required to do something.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the Democratic lead negotiator, said Thursday that he is "set up for failure."
"I support bipartisan efforts that include a small group of Senate Democrats and Republicans trying to find a way. But, my God, the fact that the majority of Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals to be debated or reach vote, it seems inconceivable to me".
Biden shared the math with Americans here: It takes 10 Republicans to pass any legislation.
What legislation will 10 Republicans support without losing to the Democrats?
Whatever it is, that is the legislation that can be passed under the current rules.
OPINION |
This is what happened when 3 countries that experienced mass shootings did something about it
Myths and facts about the possession and use of weapons 1:47
"Since Uvalde, just over a week ago, there have been another 20 mass shootings in the United States, each with four or more people killed or injured, including yesterday at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma."
So far there have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2022, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, including the Tulsa shooting.
That's more shootings than days so far this year.
Tulsa hospital shooting motivation details 3:06
"If Congress fails, I think this time the majority of the American people will not give up either. I think most of you will act and turn your outrage into making this issue the center of your vote. Enough, enough, enough."
Presidents rarely encourage people to vote for one side of the White House, where they represent the entire country.
"It's time for each of us to do our part. It's time to act. For the children we have lost, for the children we can save, for the nation we love."
One thing we know: more children will die this year from gun violence.
shootings in the United States
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