Biden on gun control: 'Do something, do something big'

He announced fresh federal measures to curb gun violence but emotionally declared there must be more

The grief is still suffocating, the anger still visceral, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, in this suburban Los Angeles community where a gunman stormed a dance hall and killed 11 in January. He announced fresh federal measures to curb gun violence but emotionally declared there must be more.

“Do something. Do something big,” he implored.

“I’m determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Mr. Biden told the families of some of the victims who were in the audience for his remarks, along with the 26-year-old who wrestled the semiautomatic pistol away from the gunman.

Mr. Biden’s rhetoric has grown ever stronger about guns— he routinely calls for banning assault weapons— in pushing a gun-control platform even tougher than during the Obama administration when he was Vice President. He has been emboldened by the midterm elections when his regular talk of gun control didn't result in massive Democratic losses, and he's expected to continue to argue for strong changes as he moves toward a 2024 reelection run, his aides say.

“We remember and mourn today,” Mr. Biden said in Monterey Park. “But I’m here with you today to act.”

The President told the crowd he’d signed an executive order aimed at stiffening background checks to buy guns, promoting more secure firearms storage, and ensuring law enforcement agencies get more out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer.

But Mr. Biden has only limited power to go beyond that legislation that was passed after the killings of 10 shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.