WASHINGTON — After ordering flags to half-staff Sunday to honor victims of the Allen shopping mall rampage, President Joe Biden accused Republicans of shrugging off an epidemic of gun violence and reiterated demands to ban AR- and AK-style rifles and high-capacity magazines.
“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” Biden said.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott focused on mental health interventions as the best “long-term solution” to reduce mass shootings and rejected calls for any sort of gun control.
At the White House, the president expressed frustration that weapons such as those used Saturday remain so accessible.
“Eight Americans — including children — were killed yesterday in the latest act of gun violence to devastate our nation,” Biden said in a statement. “An assailant in tactical gear armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon gunned down innocent people in a shopping mall, and not for the first time. Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar.”
Last June, Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act after mass shootings the previous month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
In Uvalde, 19 children and two adults were killed by a shooter who wrote “LOL” in victims’ blood on a whiteboard. In Austin, victims’ parents have lobbied to change Texas gun laws, which allow owners to carry firearms in public without a license or training, openly or concealed.
The GOP-led Legislature has rejected calls for gun control, focusing instead on mental health resources, school hardening and student discipline.
The law Biden signed was the first major gun safety measure from Congress in almost three decades.
It provided $13 billion for school and community mental health services and expanded background checks for gun buyers under 21 to allow access to juvenile records. It also let authorities confiscate guns from domestic abusers and people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was the lead GOP negotiator and one of 15 Senate Republicans who supported it.
Last month, after a school shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Cornyn rejected calls for more expansive background checks or other gun-related legislation, saying Congress had gone as far as Republicans were willing to go.
Three 9-year-olds and three adults died in that attack, which Biden called “sick” and “heartbreaking.”
Afterward, he reiterated his call for tougher gun laws, as he did Sunday, though he also said “we have made some progress” since the new law last June.
“States are banning assault weapons, expanding red flag laws and more — but it’s not enough. We need more action, faster to save lives,” he said. “Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.”
On Sunday morning, the president ordered flags flown at half-staff through Thursday “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on May 6, 2023, in Allen, Texas.”
He and first lady Jill Biden “are praying for their families and for others critically injured,” he said, “and we are grateful to the first responders who acted quickly and courageously to save lives.”
But “American communities have suffered roughly 200 mass shootings already this year,” Biden said. “More than 14,000 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives, credible estimates show. The leading cause of death for American kids is gun violence.”
