Biden brings gun control push to Virginia

Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., left, at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, after a round table conference on gun violence. / AP Photo/Steve Helber

As the White House continues its push to gain public support for stronger gun laws, Vice President Joe Biden today took his case to Richmond, Va., where he consulted a handful of experts and public officials about how to reduce gun violence in America.

Speaking at Virginia Commonwealth University after an hours-long meeting with both federal officials and several people who served on a review panel following the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, Biden said he and his team were able to "quiz" those who had studied and learned from the Virginia Tech massacre, and emphasized a few points about which "there seemed to be a pretty broad consensus." Among those points include a background check system that would more effectively prohibit certain people from owning a gun and increased access to mental health benefits.

"We talked about the need to expand mental health capacity across the country. We talked about access and we talked about resources," Biden said. "But most of the focus was on, what are the recommendations from these professional about how we can detect earlier than later those folks who would have the propensity" to carry out mass shootings as well as more commonplace gun violence.

• Lawmakers unveil bill to ban assault weapons
• Obama calls for sweeping new gun laws

In the aftermath of December's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 first-graders and six adult administrators were shot and killed, the White House has made a hard push for tough new gun laws. In the days following the attack, President Obama tapped Biden to lead a task force aimed at developing actionable ways to reduce gun violence in America, and last week, the president unveiled a wide-ranging list of proposals based on Biden's recommendations. Now, Biden is participating in the public campaign to build support for those ideas.

Democratic lawmakers have also been working in conjunction with the White House to put forward legislation relating to these proposals, and yesterday unveiled an updated version of the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004. The new bill would prohibit 158 specifically named military-style firearms and certain semiautomatic weapons, as well as outlaw ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Unlike the 1994 ban, however, which defined an assault weapon as a gun that had two or more features or cosmetic accessories such as a pistol grip, the 2013 ban would limit those features to one, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said would make it harder for assault weapons manufacturers to get around the law. The new bill would also not expire, as the 1994 bill did after 10 years.

There are significant congressional hurdles, however, to actually passing any legislation to this effect. Pushing tough new gun laws through Congress would require at least some Republicans to buck longstanding party opposition to any such legislation, and so far there is little evidence of that kind of movement.

Still, advocates are insistent that, while by no means easy, the task at hand is not impossible.

Speaking after the vice president, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., argued that despite the political hurdles surrounding the debate, "there are things you can do that work to reduce gun violence."

Biden, who has ardently advocated gun control throughout his career, argued that the nation has an "obligation to act."

"What happened up in Newtown - beautiful little babies, six and seven years old, riddled-- riddled -- with bullets," he said. "There are certain things we know with certainty would diminish the prospects of what happened at Virginia Tech" and Newtown.

"With our help of our colleagues in the House and Senate we're going to get something done," he insisted.

Asked by what means he might achieve that, Biden replied, "persuasion and information."

[RickB2400]

"Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms."
- Andrew Ford

[dcooper0011]

Please Google SBX211 and sign petition to stop Government bribes to Judges.

[lscotz]

I would have more respect for Obama and Biden if they just said "I favor gun control and I am using the Sandy Hook tragedy as a reason to press the issue." That would at least be understandable. But to press for an "assault weapon" ban that will have no significant impact on homicides in this country is pointless.

If this kind of shallow, meaningless approach was just limited to gun control, it would be one thing. But it's the same thing with environmental, transportation, banking, etc. rules/regulations.

[tsigili]

Those who trample on our Constitutional rights should be impeached!

[thelocustman]

They can't create jobs so they go after guns. Much easier to do.

[dj4240]

It's truly disgusting how these liberals keep using the Sandy Hook tragedy as a "tool" to push their worthless gun bans for their liberal ideology. None of these gun bans would have prevented any of the the mass shootings,and they know it.

[FrankoNYS]

Yes, Adam Lanza carried 4 guns to the scene. Even if each gun could only hold ten rounds you would be hard pressed to stop him during such an event (unless you yourself were armed). You can ban guns all you want but it will not stop mad people from doing mad things. This is ineffective legislation, being pushed through under the guise of our 'safety'.

[SlimeBagObama]

I wish that scumbag would hit the pavement.

[romvik]

In the five years following a gun ban in Australia the number of ARMED ROBBERIES TRIPPLED. You can see for yourself on their government statistics website: http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/violent%20crime/robbery.html
Even 10 years later it was 50 percent higher than before the ban. Make no mistake: this is NOT about the safety of our children. This is about our constitutional rights. Biden's argument does not make sense. How many police officers have been hurt by assault rifles vs. handguns? Why not make cars go only up to 30 miles an hour? I am sure we could save at least one life by making all the cars go slower. This is not about Sandy Hook or the madmen that commit terrible crimes. This is about this socialist administration attacking the Second Amendment. I agree with Biden on one thing: WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN! Let them know THIS LAW CANNOT PASS!

[Atcho456]

Uhm - I'm looking at the stats on the website you link to.
The armed robberies and unarmed robberies seem to follow almost identical patterns. That seems problematic for your simple cause and effect argument.
If the increase in armed robberies was due to a gun ban, what's your explanation for the sharp drop from 2001 to 2005?

[F_Miller]

President Obama has been pushing his unconstitutional political agendas since he came into office. His political agendas have not been known by the people. With his latest push for gun control, what if there are going to be more extreme pushes in the future and the president wants to take away American's firearms because he fears his next wave of political agendas may incite a revolution or civil war. Before you discredit my comment, just think about it for a moment and it really won't seem far-fetched.

[RCcheckitout]

Anyone notice how Obama never gets his hands dirty and he has a scape goat like Holder, Rice, Hilary, and now Old Joe. So he can use them to get out of trouble. Obama nees to be IMPEACHRED now! He is all abut tearing down America and congress is letting it happen.