President Joe Biden on Friday night harshly criticized the use of high capacity assault weapons in his first public remarks on gun violence following this week’s shooting in Maine that left at least 18 people dead.
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Biden asked: “Who the hell needs an assault weapon that can hold, in some cases, up to 100 rounds?”
Without referring to the Lewiston shootings directly, Biden said it was “outrageous what’s happening.”
Police named Robert Card, 40, a firearms instructor and an Army reservist, as a suspect and an arrest warrant on murder charges has been issued in the Lewiston shootings. The assault rifle-style weapon he is alleged to have used was purchased legally this year, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said. Card remains at large.
Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to send legislation to his desk banning assault weapons.
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In a statement Thursday, Biden urged congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and to suspend gun manufacturers’ “immunity from liability.”
“This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars — physical and mental — of this latest attack,” Biden said in the statement.
