President Joe Biden again will call on Congress to pass gun control legislation when he visits Buffalo, New York on Tuesday.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden were scheduled to visit Buffalo, where a gunman killed 10 people outside and inside a supermarket on Saturday.
White House officials confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Biden will "call on Congress to take action to keep weapons of war off our streets and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people who have a serious mental illness."
One official told the Examiner that Biden will refer to the shooting as "terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation" and ask the public "to give hate no safe harbor and to reject the lies of racial animus that radicalize, divide us, and led to the act of racist violence we saw on Saturday that took the lives of 10 of our countrymen."
The officials did not say whether Biden planned to address gun violence and domestic terrorism through new executive action.
Some Democrat congressional aides told the Examiner that pushing for a legislative gun control solution in the current Congress was pointless, especially with the midterms approaching in November.
One staffer speaking to the Examiner asked "how many more mass murders" must occur before "heartless" Republicans stop "putting politics ahead of people."
Although Biden has vowed to sign into law any gun control measures that come across his desk, he has opposed changing Senate rules to expedite that process.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told The Hill on Monday that he still supports the bipartisan gun reform bill he and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., first proposed back in 2013.
Following a mass shooting in Sacramento, California in April, when six people were killed and 10 injured, Biden called on lawmakers to pass gun control measures.
"We also continue to call on Congress to act,” Biden said after the Sacramento shooting. "Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers' immunity from liability.
"Pass my budget proposal, which would give cities more of the funding they need to fund the police and fund the crime prevention and intervention strategies that can make our cities safer. These are just a few of the steps Congress urgently needs to take to save lives."
Following the Buffalo shooting, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the racial aspect of the Buffalo shooting – 11 of 13 people who were shot were Black – instead of gun control.
Harris said Saturday's shooting illustrates "an epidemic of hate across our country that has been evidenced by acts of violence and intolerance.
"We must call it out and condemn it," Harris said. "Racially-motivated hate crimes or acts of violent extremism are harms against all of us, and we must do everything we can to ensure that our communities are safe from such acts."
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