President Biden and mayors throughout the nation on Monday known as on Congress to go a brand new ban on assault weapons and increase background checks.

Activists additionally descended on Washington for a “Save our Students” rally in response to a collection of high-profile shootings that has intensified the talk over weapons.

Mr. Biden stated Americans need lawmakers to “act on commonsense gun safety reforms.”

“It’s within Congress’ power to require safe storage and universal background checks, and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Mr. Biden stated on Twitter. “This should happen without delay.”

A bunch of 162 mayors issued like-minded calls for in an open letter to Congress demanding they do extra to deal with the “senseless acts of violence involving guns.”

“How many children must die, how many adults must die before our nation takes action to reduce gun violence?” the mayors, the overwhelming majority of whom are Democrats, stated within the letter. “We must and we can do more to protect people from this senseless slaughter.”

Meanwhile, protesters marched on the U.S. Capitol carrying “Kids Over Guns” indicators and chanting “pass the ban.” They have been from the group March Fourth that shaped in response to the Independence Day parade capturing final yr that killed seven folks in Highland Park, Illinois.

Gun-control advocates have lengthy sought to revive the 1997 ban on military-style semiautomatic rifles similar to the favored AR-15, which critics labeled assault weapons. That ban, which Mr. Biden helped go when he was a senator from Delaware, expired after 10 years.

The numerous pleas on Monday for brand spanking new gun-control legal guidelines got here after extra mass shootings over the weekend, together with at a teen’s celebration in Dadeville, Alabama, the place 4 folks have been killed.

“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?” Mr. Biden stated. “When parents have to worry about their children every time they walk out the door?”

“Americans agree and want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms,” he stated.

The mayors, of their letter, stated native leaders are “doing everything they can to prevent and reduce gun violence in their cities, although local ordinances are often preempted by state legislatures.”

“Today we repeat their message and urge you to immediately pass and send to the president legislation to ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines and to strengthen the background check system, bills that could have prevented what happened in Louisville and Nashville and so many other cities from happening in the future,” they stated.

The calls for have run into stiff opposition from Republicans and Second Amendment activists.

The National Rifle Association and different gun-rights teams argue that the push for tighter legal guidelines is the federal authorities encroaching on particular person rights. They blame gun violence on the erosion of households, psychological sickness, and societal and cultural ills.

The problem is shaping as much as be a transparent dividing line within the 2024 presidential election and aggressive congressional races.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, sponsored laws to ban assault weapons. Backed by 40 Democrats, and Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont unbiased, the invoice doesn't have the votes wanted to go the Senate and doesn't have the help of a single Republican within the higher chamber.

Former President Donald Trump and different present and sure GOP 2024 presidential contenders confirmed their help for gun homeowners eventually week’s NRA gathering in Indianapolis the place they rallied behind the push to place armed guards in private and non-private colleges.

Mr. Trump stated he'll push for a brand new tax credit score to assist academics cowl the price of going by hid carry firearm coaching.

“With me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” Mr. Trump advised NRA members. “They want to take away your guns while throwing open the jailhouse doors and releasing bloodthirsty criminals into your communities.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence known as for swifter execution of mass shooters. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” he stated.

“So to Joe Biden and the gun control extremists, I say: Give up on your pipe dreams of gun confiscation, stop endangering our lives with gun bans, and stop trampling on our God-given rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution!” Mr. Pence stated.

Mr. Biden and gun-control advocates imagine public opinion is on their aspect.

A Gallup ballot launched in February discovered that 63% of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s gun legal guidelines, the best degree in 23 years. Satisfaction with the nation’s gun legal guidelines has sunk to 34%.

Gallup’s monitoring polls present public opinion was divided for years, and dissatisfaction began to rise following the December 2012 mass capturing at an elementary faculty in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of 20 kids and 6 adults.

Views of gun legal guidelines break alongside partisan traces with 54% of Republicans saying they're happy with the established order and 84% of Democrats saying they're dissatisfied.

Mr. Biden final yr signed into legislation the nation’s first new gun management invoice in a long time.

The laws, which expands background checks to incorporate juvenile data and incentivizes states to undertake “red flag” legal guidelines, got here in response to a wave of lethal mass shootings, together with a racially fueled assault that killed 10 Black folks in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and an assault on a Texas elementary faculty that killed 19 kids and two academics.

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