WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is delivering an address to the nation Thursday night about the latest wave of mass shootings, attempting to increase pressure on Congress to pass strict…
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON President Joe Biden is delivering an address to the nation Thursday night about the latest wave of mass shootings, attempting to increase pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past outbreaks. The speech follows last week’s shootings by an 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another attack on Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office. And those came after the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as “racially motivated violent extremism.”
All major broadcast networks planned to break away from regular programing to carry Biden’s remarks at 7:30 p.m. EDT, before the start of primetime shows. The White House said the president would address “tragic mass shootings, and a need for Congress to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day.”
“He’s going to renew his call for action to stop the epidemic of gun violence that we’ve seen in Uvalde and in Tulsa and in Buffalo in just a few short weeks,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. She said Biden did not plan to announce any new executive actions and that “tonight’s speech is going to focus on what Congress needs to do.”
“It’ll be basically making sure that his voice is out there and calling to action and making sure that the American people know that he’s still continuing to speak on their behalf,” she said.
