Biden Calls for Restriction of Gun Possession on Third Anniversary of Parkland Massacre

President urges Congress to change laws to ban assault weapons and background check of buyers

Photo: KEVIN DIETSCH / EFE

For: EFE 17 February 2021

President Joe Biden urged Congress this Sunday to reform the laws that regulate the possession of firearms, a petition with a high symbolic content three years after shooting at a high school in the city of Parkland (Florida), in which they died 17 persons.

In a statement, Biden recognized the work of the survivors of the tragedy, who have launched a campaign to restrict the possession of weapons and have become a symbol for all a generation of young Americans who do not want to accept school shootings as normal .

“This,” said Biden, “is a story written by the youth of every generation who defied prevailing dogma to exi Here is a simple truth: we can do better. And we will. ”

Biden promised that his Administration will not wait for the next shooting to make a proposal to Congress , the only one with the power to reforming gun laws and has not passed any significant laws for more than two decades, in part due to the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA).

“Today, I ask Congress to enact common sense reforms to the gun law,” Biden requested.

Specifically, he asked the Legislature to pass laws so that background checks of gun buyers and assault weapons are banned and high capacity chargers that allow who carries a weapon to kill large numbers of people without having to stop to recharge bullets.

Biden also called for the end of the “immunity” enjoyed by manufacturers of a Firms that sell such “weapons of war” on the streets of the US

Before Biden, several Democratic presidents tried to restrict the right to bear arms, protected by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In fact, when he left power, the former president Barack Obama (2009 – 2017) acknowledged that his greatest frustration as president was e l failure of his efforts to expand arms control in the country .

With Obama at the forefront of the country, the debate on gun control reached its peak in 2012 following the murder of twelve people in the Aurora theater and the massacre that occurred at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown (Connecticut), where they were shot and killed 20 children and 6 women.

In 2013, after the massacre At the Newtown School, Obama signed 23 Presidential decrees and Congress debated a set of measures for greater gun control, but all legislative bills were blocked by the Republicans .

Later, under the Government of Donald Trump (2013 – 2021), no changes were promoted in the arms legislation and the president enjoyed the unconditional support of the National Rifle Association.

In USA, where they live 319 million people, guns exceed the number of inhabitants . Specifically, the proportion of weapons for each 100 people amounts to 120, according to “The Small Arms Survey”, a study prepared by the Institute for Higher International Studies of the University of Geneva (Switzerland).