DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement as President Biden delivers remarks at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s Annual Training Conference, Gun Sense University: 

“President Biden and Democrats know that it’s our duty to act to keep our schools and communities safe from the gun violence epidemic, but MAGA Republicans who have the power to make a difference are stonewalling every step of the way – trying to roll back gun safety measures, blocking commonsense gun safety legislation, and blaming the loss of lives on everything but lax gun laws. Meanwhile, President Biden established the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and signed into law the most impactful federal gun safety legislation in decades, investing $13 billion in public safety and mental health programs, strengthening background checks for young buyers, and supporting implementation of red flag laws. The contrast couldn’t be more clear: as Donald Trump tells Americans to ‘get over it’ in the wake of school shootings, there’s only one ticket this November that will fight to keep Americans safe from gun violence, and that’s President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

President Biden and congressional Democrats worked across the aisle to pass the most impactful federal gun violence prevention legislation in decades.

White House Fact Sheet: “Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces New Action to Implement Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Expanding Firearm Background Checks to Fight Gun Crime

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“In 2022, President Biden accomplished what many had tried for the past 20 years—he succeeded in expanding background checks by signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”

Associated Press: “The legislation will toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous…

“Most of its $13 billion cost will help bolster mental health programs and aid schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, and elsewhere in mass shootings.”

Center for American Progress: “The BSCA will save countless lives by putting into place commonsense gun laws that activists have been demanding for years to hold more gun dealers and traffickers accountable and keep guns out of the hands of individuals who are at higher risk of committing violence. The law does so by making it harder for domestic abusers to access guns, establishing enhanced background checks for individuals under age 21, requiring individuals who sell guns commercially for a profit to register as licensed dealers, and making gun trafficking a federal offense.”

White House Fact Sheet: “These reports make clear that BSCA is saving lives. For example, the Department of Justice has denied more than 160 firearms transactions solely because of BSCA’s enhanced background checks for individuals under age 21. In part due to BSCA’s revised definition of when an individual is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms, DOJ’s prosecutions for unlicensed dealing increased 52% from Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to FY 2022. The Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, combined, have already delivered more than $1.5 billion to states and communities to make our schools safer, improve access to mental health services, and help young people deal with the trauma and grief resulting from gun violence. With this funding, schools are projected to hire an additional 14,000 mental health professionals over the next five years.”

The Biden administration made historic efforts to combat gun violence by creating the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. 

White House: “The Biden-Harris Administration has announced dozens of executive actions to: keep especially dangerous weapons and repeat shooters off our streets; hold rogue gun dealers and gun traffickers accountable; provide law enforcement with the tools and resources they need to reduce gun violence; and address the root causes of gun violence.” 

White House: “Readout of White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention Convenings with 160 Health-Care Executives and Practitioners on the Public Health Crisis of Gun Violence”

The majority of American voters want more gun control.

Forbes: “Nearly 60% of registered voters think it’s at least somewhat important for lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll found after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York—even before another shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday further ramped up calls for Congress to pass gun control legislation.”

Gallup Polling: “Majority in U.S. Continues to Favor Stricter Gun Laws”

“Fifty-six percent of U.S. adults say gun laws should be stricter, while 31% believe they should be kept as they are now and 12% favor less strict gun laws.”

Pew Research Center: “Americans increasingly say that gun violence is a major problem. Six-in-ten U.S. adults say gun violence is a very big problem in the country today, up 9 percentage points from spring 2022.”

Donald Trump disregarded the gun violence epidemic during his presidency, while millions of Americans suffered from his lack of gun control policy.

Axios: Gun suicides account for most firearm-related deaths in U.S.

Associated Press: “FBI: 2020 homicides up nearly 30%, largest 1-year jump ever”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Council on Criminal Justice, a D.C.-based research group, found that homicides in 21 American cities were up 32% between March and October compared with 2019. And some analysts believe 2020 could record the largest-ever single-year increase in murders in the United States.”

CNN: “Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States.”

KFF: “Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations.”

Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions: “Around 4.5 million women in the United States have been threatened with a gun, and nearly 1 million women have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Over half of all intimate partner homicides are committed with guns.” 

Pew Research Center: “More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.”

Pew Research Center: “In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC.”

Donald Trump has boasted that his administration “did nothing” on gun control legislation and told Americans to “get over” school shootings.

Daily Beast: “Former President Donald Trump boasted to a gathering of National Rifle Association members Friday in Pennsylvania that his administration ‘did nothing’ about guns.”

“‘During my four years, nothing happened!’ he bellowed. ‘And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.’”

NBC News: “Trump tells supporters ‘we have to get over it’ after Iowa school shooting”

MAGA Republicans in Congress and around the country are trying to roll back gun safety laws and have blocked the chance to even debate commonsense gun safety legislation.

Associated Press: “Senate GOP blocks domestic terrorism bill, gun policy debate” 

The Guardian: “Democrats rush to push gun safety laws after mass shootings as Republicans stall” 

Associated Press: “House Republicans passed a resolution that would repeal a Biden administration rule tightening federal regulations on stabilizing braces for firearms, an accessory that has been used in several mass shootings in the U.S. over the last decade.”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked efforts by Senate Democrats to pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks legislation after the United States over the weekend broke the record for the most mass shootings in a single year.”

Roll Call: “A Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval introduced Wednesday in the Senate by John Cornyn, R-Texas, could force the chamber to vote on overturning a rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that would expand the number of gun sellers who would be required to run background checks.

“Cornyn had negotiated the 2022 gun violence prevention law that the administration relied on for the ATF rule. Now he has 41 Senate Republicans who back his joint resolution to stop that rule.”

Congressional Republicans have blamed everything except loose gun laws for mass shootings. 

NBC News: “Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., on Tuesday doubled down on his comments that Congress is ‘not gonna fix’ the problem of school shootings, saying that the country needed a ‘real revival’ rather than gun control legislation…

“‘If you want to legislate evil, it’s just not going to happen,’ Burchett said. ‘We need a real revival in this country. Let’s call on our Christian ministers and our people of faith.’”

Newsweek: “A day after a gunman opened fire on a school with a military-style rifle, Senator Mike Lee suggested that fatherlessness and family breakdown is the root cause of mass shootings and not lax gun control laws.”

Business Insider: “GOP lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene made her anti-gun control stance clear in a tweet following a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday.

“‘We don’t need more gun control,’ Greene wrote. ‘We need to return to God.’” 

Post and Courier: “During a press conference at the MUSC Children’s Hospital, [Sen. Tim Scott] said new legislation won’t be enough to prevent more violence, such as the recent massacre of children and school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. ‘The short-term fixes will only make us feel better, but won’t make us any safer,’ he said. ‘I’m very hesitant to jump to conclusions just because everyone wants one.’” 

RealClearPolitics: “Mullin blamed ‘Hollywood elites’ and video games for playing a role in the senseless ‘horrific’ tragedy, saying: ‘What we always talk about is gun control, but we don’t talk about what we expose our kids to.’

“‘The number one seller of video games is Call of Duty, for the last nine years in a row,’ he lamented. ‘if you’ve ever watched that, you can see how much violence that exposes them to. You combine that with someone who has a touch of mental illness –or is mentally ill– what do you expect is going to happen?’”