President Joe Biden has denounced Republicans’ allegiance to the gun lobby in response to a spate of mass shootings over the weekend, noting that many GOP presidential contenders spent the weekend pushing for gun deregulation at a convention for the National Rifle Association (NRA).
From the start of the year through April 16, there have been 163 mass shootings in the U.S., with an average of more than 1.5 mass shootings a day. From Friday to Sunday, there were nine mass shootings alone, according to statistics compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.
The organization defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed.
The number of mass shootings this year has far outpaced the number of mass shootings at this point last year. From January 1, 2022, to April 16, 2022, there were 139 mass shootings, meaning there has been a 17 percent increase in the number of mass shootings over a similar time frame year-to-year.
Biden cited two specific mass shootings that drew national attention over the weekend — one at a birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama, in which four people were killed and 20 were injured; and another at a park in Louisville, Kentucky, in which two people were killed and four were injured.
“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear? When parents have to worry every time their kids walk out the door to school, to the movie theater, or to the park?” Biden said in a statement on Sunday.
Biden added that the situation was “outrageous and unacceptable,” noting that most Americans agree that the U.S. should enact “commonsense gun safety reforms.”
The president then condemned Republicans, many of whom attended an NRA convention over the weekend. “This past week Americans saw national Republican elected leaders stand alongside the NRA in a race to the bottom on dangerous laws that further erode gun safety.” he said. “Our communities need and deserve better.”
Biden called on Congress to pass requirements for safe storage of firearms, background checks for every gun sale, eliminating immunity of responsibility for gun manufacturers, and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“This should happen without delay,” the president said.
The NRA convention that was held in Indianapolis, Indiana over the weekend — less than a two-hour drive from Louisville — featured many GOP speakers, including announced and presumed 2024 presidential candidates.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), who is likely to announce a presidential run, addressed the crowd through video. Presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a former Trump administration ambassador to the United Nations, also appeared by video, as did Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), who has announced an exploratory committee to run for president. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also expected to run in 2024, appeared onstage, and specifically attacked gun reform proponents in his speech.
“Stop trampling on the God-given rights of the American people every time tragedy happens,” Pence said.
Trump, who has also announced a 2024 presidential run, similarly decried gun control efforts at the convention.
“This is not a gun problem. This is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem, this is a spiritual problem,” Trump claimed.
Right-wing lawmakers often falsely portray mental illness as the root cause of gun violence, even as GOP members of Congress repeatedly oppose measures to increase mental health funding.
Scientific analyses have shown that mental illness actually plays a very small role in mass shootings. One study, for instance, found that mental illness only contributed to 4 percent of all violence in the U.S; its contribution to gun violence is even lower.
Meanwhile, a CBS News/YouGov poll published on Sunday found that 62 percent of Americans favor a nationwide ban on AR-15 semi-automatic weapons.
The vast majority of Americans believe that congressional action could help lower gun violence overall. Seventy-six percent of the poll’s respondents said that mass shootings can be prevented “if we really tried,” while just 24 percent said that Americans have to accept mass shootings as a cost of living in a free society.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy