President Joe Biden on Tuesday paid tribute to the families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting nine years ago, saying the nation owed them action - not prayers.
In a video message released by the White House, Biden called the day that 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members, 'one of the saddest days' that he and Barack Obama were in office.
Sandy Hook was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history, and the fourth-deadliest mass shooting overall.
Biden, who was vice president at the time, acknowledged the frustration felt by families in Newton, Connecticut, as they lobbied to pass stricter gun control laws but came up short.
'We came close to legislation, but we came up short. It was so darn frustrating, and it's still frustrating now for you and me and so many others,' he said.
He noted the same frustration was felt by families in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and from the families in last month's shooting in Oxford, Michigan.
And he issued a call for action.
'We owe all these families more than our prayers. We owe them action,' he said.
'We can't give up hope. We can't stop,' Biden added.
He called on the Senate to pass legislation proposed by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, from Connecticut, that would expand federal background checks to all gun sales.
And Biden asked the Senate to pass a bill from Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and Amy Klobuchar that would close the so-called 'boyfriend loophole.' The bill would prevent people who have abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms and stop convicted stalkers from possessing a gun.
But to move those bills forward in the legislative process, 10 Republicans senators would need to support them, which is unlikely.
Two House-passed bills to greatly expand background checks have already stalled in the Senate.
In a November poll, just 52% of Americans say that the 'laws covering the sales of firearms' should be stricter than they currently are, the lowest number that Gallup has measured on the question since 2014. In 2019, 64% of people told Gallup they wanted stricter gun laws.
But a bigger majority of Americans support universal background checks.
A March poll from Politico/Morning Consult found that 84% of voters, including over three-quarters of Republicans and 82% of Independents, support a law requiring a background check for all firearm purchases.
President Joe called on the Senate to pass universal background checks and a law that would close the 'boyfriend loophole'
Sandy Hook was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history, and the fourth-deadliest mass shooting overall - above two Connecticut State Police officers accompany a class of students, and two adults, out of the school on the day of shooting
Local residents place flowers near the Sandy Hook Elementary School December 15, 2012
In 2021 there were at least 149 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 32 deaths and 94 injuries nationally, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.
Given the difficulty of passing gun control laws in Congress, Biden has wielded the power of the presidential pen to sign executive orders in an attempt to rein in gun sales.
He's moved to crack down on 'ghost guns,' homemade firearms that lack serial numbers used to trace them and are often purchased without a background check. He's also moving to tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces like the one used in Boulder, Colorado, in a shooting in March that left 10 dead.
Additionally, the president's Build Back Better Act includes $5 billion for community violence interventions.
But there are many actions he can't take with executive order, showing the limits of his power.
His orders don't affect the sale of assault weapons, nor will they close loopholes that allow buyers to escape background checks online or at gun shows. A fifth of all guns sold to buyers in the US don't require a background check, according to the Giffords Law Center, a national advocate for gun control.
He's also fallen short on his 2020 presidential campaign promises.
Biden promised to ban the importation of assault weapons, vowed to embrace of a voluntary gun buyback program and pledged to provide resources for the Justice Department and FBI to better enforce the nation's current gun laws and track firearms.
Mass shootings have been on the rise in the US even with the coronavirus pandemic still raging around the country.
The Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one with four or more people injured or killed, not including the perpetrator, said there were 42,657 from 669 mass shootings and 27 mass murders in 2021.
On December 14, 2012, the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
President Barack Obama gave a televised address on the day of the shootings, calling on the country 'to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.'
He later traveled to Newtown where he met with victims' families and spoke at an interfaith vigil.
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