President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are meeting with law enforcement officials to promote their gun control agenda. The meeting is the first of many likely such talks to garner support for the semi-automatic weapons ban. President Obama is expected to discuss the overall scope of his plan to reduce violent crime in America.
The president and vice president will address officials from the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Major County Sheriffs Association in the White House on Monday morning. The Roosevelt Room meeting should allow the Obama administration to hear crime and Second Amendment views from metropolitan area representatives, but may leave rural officials out of the loop.
Gun ownership is commonly thought to be higher in rural areas and not just for hunting purposes. Many gun rights activists feel the personal safety aspect is largely being left out of the gun control equation. While violent crime is typically lower in rural regions, residents often live in remote areas and value their weapons as a primary means of self-protection.
President Obama’s gun control plan would not only ban “assault weapons” but high-capacity magazines and spend millions of dollars on research, counseling, and training, Planet Washington reports. The gun control public relations campaign included a Virginia stop for Joe Biden on Friday, McClatchy notes. The vice president spent more than two hours meeting with local officials in a closed-door meeting.
Vice President Biden had this to say about a gun ban after the lengthy private meeting:
“We have to act – not wait. There’s certain things we know with certainty will diminish the prospects of what happened in Virginia Tech or what happened in any of these mass shootings.”
Do you agree with Biden that there is “certainty” about what will or will not prevent more mass shootings in America? Is the proposed ban an infringement upon Second Amendment protections?