GunsBiden argues new gun laws needed

Vice President Joe Biden told regional law enforcement officials in Philadelphia on Monday that new gun laws are needed if gun violence is to stop. Biden pledged to take his message around the country.

“If we can save the life of one single person, one child, without any impact on an individual’s constitutional right, then why in God’s name should we not do that?” Biden said at a round-table discussion. “We’re going to be judged very harshly if we don’t.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that Biden, who spoke on the eve of the president’s State of the Union address, expects Barack Obama  once again to push Congress to pass gun control legislation which will include tighter background checks and limits on ammunition clips for high powered assault weapons.

According to Biden, since the Sandy Hook massacre, five people have been shot to death in Wilmington, D.C. and another thirty-three have been killed in Philadelphia.

Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania), who was once an opponent of gun control proposals, has changed his views and now supports an assault weapons ban and limitations on ammunition. Casey described the Sandy Hook massacre as “a tragedy that shook me in a way that was just remarkable.”

Since the shooting, which took place in December, many lawmakers have advocated different  gun control measures as well as more thorough background checks, but just as many lawmakers in Congress oppose gun control. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has  been actively lobbying against the passage of nes gun laws, alling instead for stricter enforcement of laws already on the books.

Observers note that the administration will have a tough time getting any gun law passed, although a regulation requiring tougher law enforcement background checks on all gun purchases is likely to pass the House.