President Joe Biden offered his views on gun control Monday, expressing concern to reporters at the White House about the lethality of modern weapons.
“The Constitution, the Second Amendment, was never perfect. You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said.
President and First Lady Jill Biden are scheduled to attend a wreath-laying ceremony for Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday and meet the families of service members who have died.
Biden addressed reporters’ questions on gun control after last week’s shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 children and two teachers. The Bidens visited the community on Sunday and expressed their grief with the families. As people chanted “Do something” as they left a church, Biden said: “We will.”
Asked for more details on Monday, Biden talked about visiting a trauma center in New York and seeing the damage done by modern weapons.
“The 9mm bullet blows the lungs out of the body,” the president said. “It has no rational basis in terms of self-defense, hunting.”
Although he has yet to start talks with Republicans on any changes, he said: “I think things have gotten so bad that everyone is getting more rational about it.”
He then named Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) as “rational” Republicans in their efforts to compromise on the law.
Biden acknowledged that his ability to act with executive orders is limited. “I can do what I do and I will continue to take whatever executive action I can. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that,” he said. Told.
Biden has been part of various efforts to control gun violence over the years. He was involved in the 1994 assault weapons ban, which ended in 2004. He was also part of a failure to pass new legislation following the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, which left 26 people dead.
McConnell has tasked Cornyn, who tweeted in defense of police personnel who were slow to respond to the Uvalde shooting, with starting discussions with Democrats to find a consensus on gun legislation.
According to OpenSecrets.org, both senators are among the top five congressional recipients of funding from pro-gun groups.
