Biden Calls For Banning Assault-style Weapons, Raising Gun Age Limit To 21

President Joe Biden has called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. He suggested that if it is not possible, the age to purchase them should be raised from 18 to 21.

Biden made the call while addressing the nation after a series of mass shootings shook the nation recently.

Four people were killed and several others wounded when a gunman opened fire at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wednesday. The assailant was armed with a rifle and a handgun.

The latest incident of gun violence in the U.S. comes just a week after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in a shooting spree at an elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The teenage shooter, who was carrying a handgun and an AR-15 rifle, was killed by law enforcement at the scene.

Biden proposed a number of rational, commonsense measures” to tackle the menace; Strengthen background checks; Enact safe storage laws and red-flag laws; Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability; Address he mental health crisis deepening the trauma of gun violence and as a consequence of that violence.

The President said the country should reinstate the assault weapons ban and high-capacity magazines that the Congress passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in and the support of law enforcement. Nine categories of semi-automatic weapons were included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s.

Biden noted that in the 10 years since the law was implemented, mass shootings went down in the U.S. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled, he said.

Biden proposed that a limit should be set on how many rounds a weapon can hold.

He stressed the need to have national red-flag laws, which are currently in force in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

In his opinion, red-flag laws could have stopped the shooters in Fort Hood, Texas, and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing about 30 people.

Biden also called for repealing the liability shield that often protects gun manufacturers from being sued for the death and destruction caused by their weapons.

He said the House of Representatives is planning more gun-control measures next week such as safe storage requirements, banning of high- capacity magazines, raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21, Federal red-flag law, codifying the ban on ghost guns that don’t have serial numbers and can’t be traced, and tougher laws to prevent gun trafficking and straw purchases.

But Biden said even if the Bills are passed in the Housein “in order to get anything done in the Senate, we need a minimum of 10 Republican senators.”

Biden said that he finds it unconscionable that the majority of the Senate Republicans don’t want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote.

Progress in the Upper House is seen as unlikely, as the Senate Republicans say access to guns is a constitutional right.

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