11/29/2022

Biden Seizes on Gun Control Despite Hurdles in Congress

The issue reflects Biden’s effort to rally Democrats before the new session

Vexed by another string of mass shootings, President Biden has begun calling vociferously on Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons despite the extremely low odds that it will enact such a ban — a reflection of how he may seek to use Republicans as a foil now that a GOP takeover of the House is putting his legislative goals further out of reach.

The president's declaration that it is "just sick" that the United States allows the sale of semiautomatic weapons, coming after shootings in a Walmart in Virginia and an LGBTQ club in Colorado left a combined 11 people dead, does not reflect any illusions about the realities of divided government, his aides said. But with an eye toward positioning himself and his party for 2024, Biden believes public opinion has shifted in Democrats’ favor on certain key social issues, said the aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal strategy.

"This is one of those issues where there's a huge disconnect between the attitudes of average Americans and Republicans," said John Anzalone, Biden's pollster, adding that issues like universal background checks and other restrictions on accessing guns are supported by a significant majority of voters. "It will continue to be a political football, but I think that increasingly it'll be an electoral issue."

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.