PresidentJoe BidenandJimmy Kimmelcut to the chase.
The president, 79, jumped into a discussion about gun control soon after he sat down onJimmy Kimmel LiveWednesday night, his first in-studio late night appearance as president.
“You were here in September 2019, and one of the things we talked about at length was gun violence. You said we needed to do something about gun violence, particularly when it comes to schools. Halfway through this year already, and there have been what, 27 shootings at schools?” the host, 54, began. “Why haven’t we done anything about this?”
On the state of the GOP, Kimmel countered, “It seems like the party has moved hard-right, but the people maybe haven’t moved hard-right. Because people overwhelmingly believe we should have serious background checks” – to which the audience applauded.
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Pointing to the assault weapons ban he sponsored in 1994, Biden said that violence and gun crime dropped in the decade it was in effect – but that things changed for the worse immediately after the Bush administration didn’t reauthorize it.
“You could own assault weapons again. And guess what? Crime went up significantly,” the president said. “There is a direct correlation between the kinds of weapons that can be had [and crime].”
Jimmy Kimmel Live/Youtube
Turning to the mass shooting atRobb Elementary Schoolin Uvalde, Texas last month whichkilled 21 people, including 19 students and two adults, Biden spoke about the heartbreaking trip tomeet with the grieving communitythere.
“I met with every single family member, of all those kids, and the teachers, who were killed in Uvalde, Texas,” he recalled. “They stayed with me for almost 4 hours. Almost 200 of them, family and extended family. The stories they told. The pain on their faces.”
Interjecting, Kimmel pressed, “Can’t you issue an executive order? Trump passed those out like Halloween candy.”
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“I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with everything having to do with guns, gun ownership… all the things that are within my power. What I don’t want to do – and I’m not being facetious – is emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.
“And I mean that sincerely because I often get asked — ‘Look, the Republicans don’t play it square, why do you play it square?’ Well, guess what. If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy,” he stressed.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Last week, the president and first ladyDr. Jill Bidenvisited Uvaldeon the heels of an announcement from The Justice Department that it will conduct a review of the police response to the mass shooting at the request of Mayor McLaughlin.
“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events. The review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Coleyissued in a statementon May 29.
“As with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent. The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review,” the statement noted.
The review is a crucial development as three days after the shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety director said that Chief of Police Pete Arredondomade the “wrong decision"in not confronting the shooter untilmore than 40 minutes afterhe entered the school.
source: people.com
