--- title: Biden Isn’t Giving Up on Gun Safety, Despite the Gridlock description: Reducing mass shootings remains a priority for Biden, but advocates worry he's not willing to fully use the powers of his office to address it canonical: https://time.com/6287758/biden-gun-violence-mass-shootings/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-16T11:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:02:16.472Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Isn’t Giving Up on Gun Safety, Despite the Gridlock og:description: As Biden prepares to address an anti-gun-violence summit in Connecticut, his passion on the issue remains high, and he hasn't given up on lawmakers tackling it before the next election og:url: https://time.com/6287758/biden-gun-violence-mass-shootings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1073ca41ea859c5f/698a3df622fb850008e2ec77/GettyImages-1258699584.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-BIDEN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Isn’t Giving Up on Gun Safety, Despite the Gridlock twitter:description: As Biden prepares to address an anti-gun-violence summit in Connecticut, his passion on the issue remains high, and he hasn't given up on lawmakers tackling it before the next election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1073ca41ea859c5f/698a3df622fb850008e2ec77/GettyImages-1258699584.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Isn’t Giving Up on Gun Safety, Even as Much of Washington Is For Now > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  President Joe Biden speaks during the League of Conservation Voters Annual Capital Dinner, at The Anthem on June 14, 2023 in in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden speaks during the League of Conservation Voters Annual Capital Dinner, at The Anthem on June 14, 2023 in in Washington, DC. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds—AFP /Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2023 11:00 AM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Since Joe Biden raised his right hand and took his oath of office in January of 2021, there have been [more](https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/) than 1,600 mass shootings in this country. That was a relatively short 877 days ago. So, as the President joins fellow lawmakers, leaders, and wonks on Friday in Connecticut for an anti-gun-violence summit, a lot of Washington will be expecting Biden to offer more passionate rhetoric that will inevitably sprint headlong into an intractable wall of opposition from the gun lobby. Given the history here, optimism is in less supply than bullets. Unless, of course, you’re Biden. That there are so many mass shootings coming at such a rapid pace is a fact that has [haunted](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/27/biden-assault-weapons-ban-nashville-shooting-00089050#:~:text=turned%20into%20prisons.%E2%80%9D-,Biden%20has%20focused%20on%20reinstating%20the%20assault%20weapons%20ban%20that,assault%20weapons%20ban%20in%20Congress.) Biden, and it goes back decades. In the Senate, Biden pushed tougher laws to boost safety, most notably a [ban](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/01/1167467835/school-shooting-assault-weapons-ban-history) on assault weapons and a [crime bill](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/20/18677998/joe-biden-1994-crime-bill-law-mass-incarceration), both in 1994\. The assault weapons ban lapsed in 2004 and lawmakers have lacked the votes for the last decade to bring back the measure that [statistically](https://theconversation.com/did-the-assault-weapons-ban-of-1994-bring-down-mass-shootings-heres-what-the-data-tells-us-184430) saved hundreds of lives. As Vice President, Biden [led](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-gun-control-effort-sandy-hook-214644) the Obama Administration’s review of gun laws and restrictions, proposing technical fixes where he could to tighten up access to the deadly weapons. And as President, against stiff headwinds and long odds, he wrestled a once-in-a-generation [package](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/24/gun-safety-bill-congress-00042312) of gun limits into law and still [wants](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/28/1166577083/biden-guns-congress) to bring back the assault weapons ban despite almost [impossible](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/why-biden-pushes-an-assault-weapons-ban-despite-political-odds-2023-01-27/) opposition. Yet, when he talks about big wishes with his team, [guns](https://time.com/6274979/gabby-giffords-gun-control/) remain near the top of his to-do list. That unfinished idea is one that [strikes](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/24/biden-gun-legislation-year-after-texas-school-shooting-00098652) at Biden’s always-raw [emotion](https://time.com/6266527/biden-nashville-school-shooting-republicans/), and he has plausibly spent more time than any of his predecessors obsessing over what more the government can do to protect its citizens from gun violence. Almost certainly he has spent more time with gun violence victims than [anyone](https://time.com/longform/joe-biden-2020/) who has reached the Oval Office. As a father who has buried two children, he has an instant and durable [connection](https://time.com/5949712/joe-biden-america-grief-counselor/) with the parents who have seen their children killed in school shootings. [Without](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/07/biden-gun-control-shooting-texas-00095691) a cooperative Congress, however, there’s really only so much Biden can do. He got Congress to budge on limited efforts, but his executive actions and orders have not been as [sweeping](https://www.heritage.org/firearms/heritage-explains/bidens-gun-control-agenda) as he had sought. Anti-gun violence groups have long held Biden as an ally, but one who doesn’t warrant unlimited patience. [Pressure](https://time.com/6148442/biden-gun-control-parkland-anniversary/) has been building on the White House to take more concrete steps beyond their initial round of technical tweaks. Some of Biden’s most dogged advocates will be afoot, too, and listening closely to see what—if any—concrete steps the White House is teeing up. On the other side, the gun lobby and its Republican allies in Congress have a tried-and-true [playbook](https://time.com/6188766/gun-deal-inflation-jan-6/) all but [perfected](https://time.com/5180537/gun-control-donald-trump-meeting/): run out the clock after every one of these mass shootings and the intensity fades. With perhaps the lone [exception](https://time.com/6187044/gun-deal-democrats-republicans-what-happens-next/) of last year’s [shooting](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/us/uvalde-shooting-anniversary-families-guns.html) in Uvalde, Texas, the violence’s urgency simply peters out, gun sales spike for fear of backlash, and lawmakers dust off talking points that have been useful for both sides since the Clinton years. If it feels like a perpetual loop of calls to action alternating with calls for measured restraint, it’s because it is. Even as Biden’s aides on Thursday were finalizing his speech text, jurors in Pittsburgh were [considering](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-trial.html) the case they had just heard about the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Since then, there have been 2,949 mass shootings in the United States. Absent action in Washington, that number is almost certainly already outdated. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6287758/biden-gun-violence-mass-shootings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6287758/biden-gun-violence-mass-shootings/"},"headline":"Biden Isn’t Giving Up on Gun Safety, Even as Much of Washington Is For Now","datePublished":"2023-06-16T11:00:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:02:16.472Z","description":"As The President prepares to address an anti-gun-violence summit in Connecticut, his passion on the issue remains high.","url":"https://time.com/6287758/biden-gun-violence-mass-shootings/","keywords":["The D.C. 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