Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2024

February 14, 2024

The Super Bowl is the most unifying event in America. Nothing brings more of us together. And the celebration of a Super Bowl win is a moment that brings a joy that can't be matched to the winning team and their supporters. For this joy to be turned to tragedy today in Kansas City cuts deep in the American soul.

Today's events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for?

What else do we need to see? How many more families need to be torn apart?

It is time to act. That's where I stand. And I ask the country to stand with me. To make your voice heard in Congress so we finally act to ban assault weapons, to limit high-capacity magazines, strengthen background checks, keep guns out of the hands of those who have no business owning them or handling them.

We know what we have to do, we just need the courage to do it.

Today, on a day that marks 6 years since the Parkland shooting, we learned that three police officers were shot in the line of duty in Washington, DC, and another school shooting took place at Benjamin Mays High School in Atlanta. Yesterday marked 1 year since the shooting at Michigan State University. We've now had more mass shootings in 2024 than there have been days in the year.

The epidemic of gun violence is ripping apart families and communities every day. Some make the news. Much of it doesn't. But all of it is unacceptable. We have to decide who we are as a country. For me, we're a country where people should have the right to go to school, to go to church, to walk the streetâand to attend a Super Bowl celebrationâwithout fear of losing your life to gun violence.

Jill and I pray for those killed and injured today in Kansas City and for our country to find the resolve to end this senseless epidemic of gun violence tearing us at the seams.

NOTE: The statement referred to Lisa Lopez-Galvan, who was killed in the shooting in Kansas City, MO.

Categories: Statements by the President : Gun violence around the Nation. Names: Biden, Jill T.; Lopez-Galvan, Lisa.

Subjects: Criminal background check procedures, strengthening efforts; District of Columbia, shooting of police officers; Florida, 2018 shooting in Parkland; Football; Georgia, shooting in Atlanta; Gun control efforts; Gun violence, prevention efforts; Michigan, 2023 shooting in East Lansing; Missouri, shooting in Kansas City.

DCPD Number: DCPD202400107.

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