Speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked when President Joe Biden plans to issue executive orders on limiting the Second Amendment. In response, she said he has been working with advisors and gun control groups in recent weeks on the orders and is urging Congress to pass new gun control legislation.
"He sees it vital to take steps on two tracks because congressional legislation, as the vice president conveyed this morning, obviously has a more permanent, lasting impact. Executive actions are of course an important lever that every president has at their disposal. There are current discussions and analyses internally of what steps can be taken. That has been ongoing for several weeks, even before these two recent tragedies, that he looks forward to getting an update on and seeing what can be moved forward on that front as well," Psaki said. "It's an ongoing policy process internally."
Psaki would not give details about what exactly Biden plans to do through executive action.
During remarks from the White House Tuesday, Biden called for a ban on modern sporting rifles and falsely claimed the 1994-2004 "assault weapons" ban reduced mass shootings.
"We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was law for the longest time, and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again," he said.
A 2004 Department of Justice funded study from the University of Pennsylvania Center of Criminology concluded the ban cannot be credited with a decrease in violence carried out with firearms.
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