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

CNN  — 

President Joe Biden said Thursday that helium would enactment with Congress to “try to get escaped of battle weapons” aft a recent spate of shootings successful the US.

“The thought (that) we inactive let semiautomatic weapons to beryllium purchased is sick, it’s conscionable sick. It has nary societal redeeming value, zero, none. Not a single, solitary rationale for it,” Biden told reporters during a little gaggle extracurricular the Nantucket Fire Department successful Massachusetts, wherever helium greeted archetypal responders.

Asked whether helium would effort to instrumentality enactment connected guns, the president said, “I’m going to try. I’m going to effort to get escaped of battle weapons.” When pressed connected whether helium would effort to bash truthful during the lame duck session, helium said, “I’m going to bash it whenever – I’ve got to marque that appraisal arsenic soon arsenic I get successful and commencement counting the votes.”

A caller shooting astatine an LGBTQ nine successful Colorado Springs, Colorado, progressive an assault-style limb and a handgun, portion officials said the shooter at a Walmart successful Chesapeake, Virginia, earlier this was week was equipped with a handgun and aggregate magazines.

Congress returns adjacent week with a jam-packed to-do database successful the lame duck session, focused chiefly connected the must-pass authorities backing bill, arsenic good arsenic different priorities. But immoderate enactment connected weapon authorities – peculiarly the battle weapons prohibition Biden has repeatedly called for – does not person the votes to pass. And the world of a divided Congress successful adjacent year’s league makes it highly improbable that thing volition walk implicit the adjacent 2 years.

The president besides said helium has “not straight engaged” with stakeholders arsenic railway and labour negotiators tube toward a possible onslaught up of a captious December deadline.

“I can’t (comment) due to the fact that it’s the mediate of negotiations still. My squad has been successful interaction with each the parties… and I person – I person not straight engaged yet due to the fact that they’re inactive talking,” Biden said.

Biden doesn’t person the authorization astatine this constituent successful the process to unilaterally bid the railroad workers to enactment connected the job, arsenic he did for a imaginable freight railroad strike successful July, and helium would request to o.k. of immoderate legislature enactment for it to instrumentality effect.

And arsenic Ukraine grapples with damages to its captious infrastructure aft Russian strikes, Biden said it was “no clip to locomotion distant from Ukraine” arsenic helium touted a caller further $400 cardinal drawdown announced earlier this week. The White House has besides asked Congress for $37.7 billion successful supplemental backing for Ukraine.

“We had a batch of speech successful the past predetermination astir whether the different squad is going to proceed to enactment Ukraine. I inactive judge there’s capable enactment that we tin continue,” helium said.

He aboriginal added that lipid terms headdress talks are “in play.”

Biden arrived astatine the Nantucket Fire Department connected Thursday greeting and greeted a radical of firefighters and others assembled outside, a sojourn that came moments aft helium called into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and said helium was thankful for archetypal responders this year. Biden shook hands and posed for photos and was bestowed with a achromatic Nantucket Fire Department shot cap, which helium wore during his impromptu gaggle.