(JustPatriots.com)- President Joe Biden has been pushing for stricter gun control legislation since he entered office in January of 2021.
And even though the bipartisan gun control bill that’s making its way into draft form won’t go nearly as far as the president has said he’s wanted, Biden is prepared to sign it anyway.
For a while now, Biden has said that the ban on assault weapons that he helped to pass as a senator in 1994 was the last major piece of legislation that addressed gun violence in America. His administration had been hoping to make another big splash on gun control, but they’ve been very unsuccessful in doing so.
Despite the bipartisan bill that’s being proposed now falling well short of what Biden wants, he still said he’s going to be happy to sign it if it ends up making it to his desk.
On Sunday, Biden released a statement about the bill that said:
“I want to thank Senator Chris Murphy and the members of his bipartisan group — especially Senators Cornyn, Sinema and Tillis — for their tireless work to produce this proposal. Obviously, it does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”
The bipartisan group of senators announced they had reached an agreement on the framework of a gun control bill on Sunday. While the text is still in the process of being written, the bill would further crack down on the illegal sale of guns, would provide funding for school security and mental health programs, and seek to protect any victims of domestic violence.
Biden was hoping that Congress would pass legislation that would completely ban all assault weapons, and increase the age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21 years old. He also was against allowing large capacity magazines and 9 mm guns.
Despite what he wants, it looks as if the bipartisan gun control bill will address none of those issues. That being said, Biden is still in strong support of the measures that have been talked about.
As Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said earlier this week:
“This is about saving lives. The president wants to see Congress act. He wants to see this on his desk as quickly as possible, and that’s going to be our focus.”
The legislation that Biden was a big part of in 1994 went far in cracking down on gun violence, but it expired back in 2004 and was never renewed. Now, in the wake of recent mass shootings that involved assault weapons, many legislators have called for their ban again.
But, after a recent shooting at an elementary school in Texas left 19 students and two teachers dead, some legislators started to come around to address gun violence in the country.
It’s not exactly what Biden would have liked to see, but it’s apparently enough of a move in the right direction that he’s excited to sign the bill.
