President Joe Biden once again called for a ban on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, which he referred to as “weapons of war” in an El Paso Times op-ed published Tuesday. The op-ed marked the two-year anniversary of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that left 23 people dead.
“As we work together to counter the forces of violent hatred, we must also commit to ending the plague of gun violence that steals innocent lives and continues to devastate our communities,” Biden wrote. “I will continue to do everything I can to fight for commonsense gun laws that Americans overwhelmingly support and I call again on Congress to do what we know will make a difference, including a ban of weapons of war — assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like the one that ravaged and pierced this city.”
Additionally, the president vowed to continue efforts to reduce gun crime through “reining in the proliferation of ‘ghost guns” and “investing in community policing and community violence interventions.”
“In the days after the shooting, I said we must join together as Americans and stand united against hate and violence. I believe that with even greater resolve and urgency today. We must all work together to defend our values, our democracy, and our freedom to live together peacefully. We owe it to the families of El Paso. We owe it to each other and for the soul of our very country.”
Biden also doubled down on previous claims that “the most lethal terrorist threat” to the United States domestically is “terrorism rooted in white supremacy.”
“We cannot ignore it. We must confront the spread of hate-fueled violence in every form,” he wrote. “To that end, in June my Administration laid out our country’s first-ever comprehensive effort to tackle the threat posed by domestic terrorism. We are doing so by taking action to reduce online radicalization and recruitment to violence. We’re also disrupting the networks that inspire such violence by domestic terrorists and hate groups and providing resources to communities to build resilience.”
Biden’s op-ed is the latest in a long line of calls for stricter gun control. In July, he said during a CNN town hall that he is “continuing to push to eliminate” 9mm handguns, in addition to rifles that are able to fire multiple rounds.
“I’m the only guy that ever got — passed legislation when I was a senator to make sure we eliminated assault weapons,” the president said. “The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a, whether it’s a 9mm pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous.”
“I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things, but I’m not likely to get that done in the near term,” Biden continued.
