Vice President Kamala Harris said Congress must move to pass gun control legislation — but stopped short of saying President Biden would take immediate executive action if the Senate lacks the votes.
Harris made the comments Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left a total of 18 people dead.
“It is time for Congress to act,” the vice president said.
“And stop with the false choices. This is not about getting rid of the Second Amendment. It’s simply about saying we need reasonable gun safety laws. There is no reason why we have assault weapons on the streets of a civil society. They are weapons of war. They are designed to kill a lot of people quickly.”
Harris urged the narrowly divided Senate to pass two bills already approved by the House that would expand background checks.
“The point here is, Congress needs to act, and on the House side, they did. There are two bills which the president is prepared to sign. And so we need the Senate to act,” she told CBS’ Gayle King.
But the Senate, which is split 50-50 but Democrats control with Harris’ tie-breaking vote, appears unlikely to find support for any gun control measures, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) coming out against the House bills.
The vice president was then asked if Biden would take matters into his own hands and use executive action on guns if needed — and she suggested he would be hesitant to do so.
Instead, Harris deflected and said Congress passing legislation creates a “permanent” law.
A woman who only wanted to be identified as Rowan looks at hundreds of flowers put into the fence surrounding the King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder, Colorado. Denver Post via Getty Images“If the Congress acts, then it becomes law. And that is what we have lacked, that is what has been missing. We need universal background checks. You know various states have done it but there’s no universal approach to this,” Harris said, adding that the president is prepared to sign the legislation.
“We should first expect the United States Congress to act. I’m not willing to give up on what we must do,” she added.
On Monday afternoon, a gunman mowed down 10 people, including a police officer, in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder.
Health care workers walk out of the King Soopers grocery store after a gunman opened fire. Getty ImagesThe deadly incident followed another the previous Tuesday in which a man killed eight people — six of whom were Asian women — during a shooting spree in Atlanta-area spas.
