Biden marks Florida school shooting, but activists demand action

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden marked the fourth anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, with a call on Congress to tackle gun violence in America.

The high school shooting left 17 students and educators dead.

And the frustration with the lack of action by the federal government led to drama Monday when the father of one of the student victims scaled a construction crane near the White House.

Manuel Oliver, whose son, Joaquin, died in the school shooting, live-tweeted from atop the crane, where he unfurled a banner that read: “45K people died from gun violence on your watch.”

Biden offered words of solace to the families and community “shattered by grief” from the Florida school shooting.

“We pray too for those still grappling with wounds both visible and invisible,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

The Florida school shooting erupted just five months after a lone gunman opened fire on a country music festival on the Strip, an incident that ultimately killed 60 people and wounded hundreds more.

“Too many communities have been devastated by gun violence, including my home town of Las Vegas,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., in a statement to the Review-Journal.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said “today’s anniversary is a reminder of the damage gun violence inflicts on families and communities across the country.”

“In Congress I’ve introduced sensible legislation to regulate bump stocks and joined common sense efforts to keep guns out of dangerous hands,” Titus said.

Rep. Susie Lee said on Twitter: “It’s been 4 years since the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. My heart is with the victims, the survivors, the loved ones, and the entire Parkland community. Today we mourn. Tomorrow we act. Congress must deliver results on gun violence prevention.”

Biden said the nation stands “with Americans in every corner of our country who have lost loved ones to gun violence or had their lives forever altered by a shooting, in tragedies that made headlines and in ones that did not.”

But protesters in front of the White House and gun safety advocates also used Monday to pressure the president and his administration for a lack of progress on legislative remedies.

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump restricted bump stocks, which increase the rate of fire of semiautomatic rifles, but the regulation change is being challenged in federal courts by gun rights advocates. Bump stocks were used in the Las Vegas shooting, and Nevada and other states have banned the devices.

Biden said he has put forward a plan to curb gun violence by banning “ghost gun” kits, programs to promote safe firearm storage and providing additional funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal agencies to work in tandem with state and local law enforcement agencies.

And, he said, “Congress must do much more — beginning with requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers.”

Political speed bumps

But Democratic and bipartisan bills have run into GOP opposition backed by gun rights advocates and gun manufacturers.

Biden withdrew his nominee for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a former FBI official who later worked with gun control groups, due to Republican opposition to confirmation in the Senate.

And although the House has passed two bills to enhance background checks, those bills have been blocked by GOP lawmakers in the Senate, where 60 votes are currently needed to advance legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday called on the Senate to “finally send this overdue legislation to the president’s desk.”

Cortez Masto and Titus filed bills to ban high-capacity magazines, which were used in the Las Vegas tragedy, but they have failed to advance. Titus also is sponsoring legislation to ban bump stocks and also assault-style weapons used in many of the mass shootings. The bill also has failed to move forward.

Other Nevada congressional Democratic lawmakers — Sen. Jacky Rosen, Lee and Rep. Steven Horsford — also support gun control measures before the House and Senate.

Rep. Mark Amodei, the lone Republican in the state’s delegation, has argued against congressional infringement of Second Amendment rights. Amodei did not support bump stock legislation, but supported the Trump administration reclassification of bump stocks that’s currently under court challenge.

Last year, Amodei and House Republicans were successful in stripping a provision out of the current defense bill that would have allowed military judges and magistrates to issue gun confiscation orders on service members not present in court.

Activism goes on

Entrenched partisan differences on gun legislation are unlikely to lessen in an election year. But gun control advocates led by Parkland, Florida school survivors on Monday vowed to keep up the pressure to bring about change.

Last year, Biden honored the victims and offered prayers to the families devastated by the Sandy Hook shooting with a vow to continue to push for legislation and measures to prevent more tragedies.

He offered the same Monday, in his statement and a video to survivors and families in Florida.

“We can never bring back those we’ve lost. But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe,” Biden said.

“For Parkland, for all those we’ve lost, and for all those left behind, it is time to uphold that solemn obligation,” he said.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.