Biden says senators who voted against extending federal background checks are now prepared to change their minds
Joe Biden has insisted that the Obama administration has not given up on its push for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, and indicated that the White House will try to secure a second US Senate vote on universal background checks.
Delivering his assessment of the progress made over six months since the Newtown school shooting last December, in which 20 young children and six of their carers were killed, the vice-president suggested there were signs of significant shifting opinion among the 45 senators who had voted against extending federal checks on all gun purchasers. He said of the naysayers: "I am confident, [and] I know for a fact that some of them wonder aloud now whether that was a prudent vote."
The bill would have extended FBI monitoring to all gun sales, including those made privately at gun shows or on the internet. Though it received 54 votes in favour, it failed to reach the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster, leading President Obama to denounce the 17 April vote as a "shameful day in Washington".
"We got a majority but not the super-majority we needed. We will get it. We will be back," Biden said.
Biden refused to name those senators who he claimed were having a change of heart. But the renewed impetus from the White House coincides with a major push from gun control groups to secure a second Senate vote, with much of the pressure being applied to the four Democratic senators who voted against the bill: Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the coalition led by New York's Michael Bloomberg, last week launched a 100-day bus tour across America. The tour will pass through 25 states, focusing on those of the recalcitrant senators including the four Democrats.
While most political attention is fixed on the balance of power within the Senate on the gun issue, Biden tried to strike a more positive note by underlining how much Obama had achieved since Newtown by wielding his own executive powers. The vice-president said that 21 of the 23 promises Obama had made after Newtown had already been achieved or were on their way towards completion.
The list of partially or fully completed executive orders include improvements in federal record keeping over existing background checks, extra training and resources for law enforcers, new guidelines published this week on gun safety in schools , and an end to the prohibition on federal research into gun-related homicides and suicides.
The two areas where so far the White House has failed to see results using its abilities to skirt around Congress and act alone was the pledge to require health insurance companies to cover mental health conditions on an equal footing with medical benefits (new regulations are expected later this year); and appointing a new head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Obama has nominated Todd Jones but partisan sniping is likely to block his appointment for the post that has remained empty for the past six years.