Biden Calls for Assault Weapons Ban After Nightclub Shooting

Leah Barkoukis | November 21, 2022 7:00 AM

President Biden used the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday, which killed five people and injured 25 others, to call for a ban on "assault weapons."

While acknowledging the motive remains unknown, Biden connected the shooting at Club Q to the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, six years ago, where a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 others.

"While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years," Biden said in a statement. "Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing.”

"Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing," he continued. "We saw it six years ago in Orlando, when our nation suffered the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQI+ community in American history."

Biden then called for an "assault weapons ban."

"We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms,” the president added. “Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets.”