Using emotion to press Congress to act, he detailied the lives of Monterey Park victims: A dancehall manager who walked patrons to their cars after lessons. “Let’s be clear, none of this absolves Congress from the responsibility of acting to pass universal background checks, to eliminate gun manufacturers immunity to liability,” Biden said. Rather, it directs federal agencies to ensure compliance with existing laws and procedures - a typical feature of executive orders issued by presidents when they confront the limits of their own power to act without cooperation from Congress.

His action on Tuesday does not change government policy. The president told the crowd he’d signed an executive order aimed at stiffening background checks to buy guns, promoting more secure firearms storage and ensuring law enforcement agencies get more out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer.īut Biden has only limited power to go beyond that legislation that was passed after the killings of 10 shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. “We remember and mourn today,” Biden said in Monterey Park. He has been emboldened by the midterm elections when his regular talk of gun control didn’t result in massive Democratic losses, and he’s expected to continue to argue for strong changes as he moves toward a 2024 reelection run, his aides say.

Biden’s rhetoric has grown ever stronger about guns - he routinely calls for banning assault weapons - in pushing a gun-control platform even tougher than during the Obama administration when he was vice president.

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