Biden rails against access to assault weapons after recent spate of shootings

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would work with Congress to “try to get rid of assault weapons” after a recent spate of shootings in the US.

“The idea (that) we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick, it’s just sick. It has no social redeeming value, zero, none. Not a single, solitary rationale for it,” Biden told reporters during a brief gaggle outside the Nantucket Fire Department in Massachusetts, where he greeted first responders.

Asked whether he would try to take action on guns, the president said, “I’m going to try. I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.” When pressed on whether he would try to do so during the lame duck session, he said, “I’m going to do it whenever – I’ve got to make that assessment as soon as I get in and start counting the votes.”

A recent shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, involved an assault-style weapon and a handgun, while officials said the shooter at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, earlier this was week was armed with a handgun and multiple magazines.

Congress returns next week with a jam-packed to-do list in the lame duck session, focused primarily on the must-pass government funding bill, as well as other priorities. But any action on gun legislation – particularly the assault weapons ban Biden has repeatedly called for – does not have the votes to pass. And the reality of a divided Congress in next year’s session makes it highly unlikely that anything will pass over the next two years.