Vice President Joe Biden made an emotional plea on Thursday for Congress to pass new gun restrictions, including an assault-weapons ban that Senate Democrats have already dropped from their package of gun-reform provisions.
“It’s time for the political establishment to show the courage your daughter showed,” Biden said at a Manhattan press conference, turning to the father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim,
CBS News reported.
Biden has been the administration’s point man on gun reform since President Barack Obama made it a second-term priority in January, pushing measures for universal background checks and bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.
Senate leaders dropped the assault weapons ban from its gun-reform package earlier this week because they feared it would doom the entire measure.
“For all those who say we shouldn’t and can’t ban assault weapons, for all those who say the politics is too hard,” said Biden, flanked by several family members of the Newtown, Conn., shooting victims. “How can they say that when you take a look at those 20 beautiful babies and what happened to them?”
“Think about Newtown, think about Newtown,” Biden said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who joined Biden at the press conference, said if lawmaker didn’t show “courage,” then 12,000 people would die next year of gun violence.
“In the end, what Congress has to decide is whether it’s politically popular or is it the right thing to do,” said Bloomberg, according to Yahoo News.
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