COLUMBUS — Calling gun violence an “immoral disgrace,” former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday stood with gun reform advocates at an inner-city community center to vow that he would do battle with the NRA as president — “and win.”
He accused President Trump of backing away from promises to enact stronger background checks in the immediate wake of mass shootings, including last summer's shooting in a downtown entertainment district in Dayton.
“Police were on the scene in 20 seconds...,” he said as he stood with about two dozen people who included gun violence survivors and gun reform groups that have endorsed his candidacy for the Democratic nomination over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Mr. Biden turned attention his attention to Ohio Tuesday even before the polls closed for the Democratic primary in Michigan. Ohio voters go to the polls on March 17.
“They did their job,” Mr. Biden said. “It took only 10 more seconds for them to take down the shooter. Because he was using an AR-15 style weapon..., in just 30 seconds he was still able to kill nine people and injure 27. Assault weapons, high-capacity magazines are designed for no other purpose than to kill and as quickly as possible. No one needs that.”
He pledged to revive the federal assault weapons' ban first enacted during the Clinton era but was later allowed to expire. He promised to further tighten backgrounds checks to get rid of the gun show sales loophole and to repeal protections given to gun manufacturers against civil lawsuits from victims of violence committed with their products.
After hearing from Crystal Turner, who is raising her grandchildren after losing both her son and daughter to gun violence in a domestic violence situation, Mr. Biden noted the pain of losing a child. He lost his first wife and baby daughter to a traffic accident and more recently lost a son to cancer.
“The families in Dayton learned last year what it's like to have a mass shooting rip through your community,” he said. “Normal is not acceptable. In this community whose losses don't make headlines and national news every day..., normal is an insult.''
He vowed to get rid of the rule that allows a gun sale to go forward if the results of a background check are not returned within 24 hours and to prevent gun makers from pushing off store shelves technology that can render a gun usable only by its owner.
“This is is about gun sales,” Mr. Biden said. “Sales. Money. Profit. That's what it's about.”
The group Brady: United Against Gun Violence, bearing the name of the late Jim Brady who was severely injured when his boss, President Reagan was shot, in 1981, has endorsed him.
“There is no candidate in this race as committed to this cause as Joe Biden,” said Kris Brown, president of Brady. “That's because Vice President Biden knows that the gun violence epidemic in our country is a true but preventable crisis. He knows that when we say 100 people a day die from gun violence in our country, that's 100 fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. That is 100 people too many. It's hundreds of lives ripped apart in every community across this country.”
Ohio, which President Trump won by 8 points in 2020, is among the next handful of battlegrounds to vote.
He spoke for less than half an hour in the Driving Park Community Center in Columbus. Mr. Biden has been limiting his rope line greetings with crowds.
In the afternoon, the campaigns for both Mr. Biden and Senator Sanders canceled rallies planned for later Tuesday, both in Cleveland, and because of the coronavirus.
“Despite Joe Biden's moderate facade, his outrageous plans to raise your taxes and take away your health care beg to differ,” said Trump campaign spokesman Dan Lushek. “There are no moderates with the 2020 Democrats, and Ohioans will soundly reject their radical policies in November.”
On his way out of the Wolverine State, Mr. Biden made a quick stop at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Mack Engine Plant in Detroit. On Wednesday, he planned to move on to Florida.
First Published March 10, 2020, 8:05 p.m.
