Some media reported before the Orlando massacre that the White House had waved the white flag on federal gun control efforts for the remainder of Barack Obama’s presidency, even as 14 state attorneys general called on Congress to fund research on gun violence, despite opposition from gun rights advocates.
Speaking at a forum on preventing gun violence, Vice President Joseph R. Biden urged state and local officials to pursue gun regulations in their own jurisdictions because “we’re probably not going to get much more done in the next nine months” on gun control.
He blamed inaction at the federal level on Congress, saying dysfunction on Capitol Hill has reached unprecedented levels “in modern history, short of the Civil War.”
Pursuing gun regulations at the state and local level, Mr. Biden said, “has a cumulative impact.”
“It’s a long way of saying, ‘Don’t quit on this’,”” he said.
The media reminded that Obama took executive action in January in an effort to expand background checks for certain gun buyers online and at gun shows. He also introduced a federal budget calling for the hiring of more federal agents to enforce gun laws.
But that was before the Orlando gay nightclub shooting.
