President Biden commemorates passing of gun safety legislation with mass shooting survivors at White House
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Joe Biden commemorated the passing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act on Monday. The bill is the first significant, federal legislation to address gun violence in 30 years.
Mass shooting survivors were at the nation's capital Monday to celebrate President Biden signing the new gun safety legislation into law last month.
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Survivors included families from Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tucson, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Santa Fe, Uvalde, Buffalo and Highland Park, as well as "survivors and family members of daily acts of gun violence that don’t make national headlines" according to the White House.
"We've finally moved that mountain. A mountain of opposition, obstruction and a difference that stood in the way and stopped every effort to gun safety for 30 years in this nation. Now's the time to galvanize this movement," Biden said.
The bill provides $750 million in crisis intervention and red flag laws, close the so-called "boyfriend loophole," which would ban convicted domestic abusers from buying a gun, and enhance background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21.
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The bill came together in Congress after a total of 31 people, including 19 children, were massacred in back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde in May.
Then a month and a half later, seven people were killed and dozens more shot during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
Some of those shooting survivors were invited to the White House Monday, including families from Santa Fe, Texas.
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"You always run into somebody who's affected by it, and we're all connected by the next one or the last one," said Scot Rice, whose wife, Flo, was shot during the Santa Fe High School mass shooting in 2018.
The Rice's were joined by Rhonda Hart, whose daughter, Kimberly, was on the 10 people killed at Santa Fe High School in May 2018.
The three said they're hopeful this bill provides the momentum to fuel more legislative changes to curb gun violence in the future.
"We're happy with the steps, but it's not enough," said Flo Rice.
"I'm going to keep going. You know, I'll keep lobbying," Hart said.