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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release January 10, 2013


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AT A MEETING WITH SPORTSMEN AND RURAL GROUPS

Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Room 208


11:55 A.M. EST


THE VICE PRESIDENT: Let me begin by thanking you all for being here. You represent the bulk of the sportsmen in the country, and you all know this is a complicated issue. There's no singular solution as to how we deal with the kinds of things that happened up in Newtown or in Colorado or with the general gun violence that exists in America today. And the President and I, and the Cabinet, we understand this is a complicated issue.

That's why when the President asked me to do this in conjunction with my colleagues from the Cabinet, what we did was we put together a pretty extensive list of what I would consider -- we'd consider the stakeholders and wanting to deal with the issue of gun violence in America.

And the first groups we met with -- it will not surprise you because of my long association -- with all of the national law enforcement organizations. But we also, just go give you a sense of what we've done so far, and how you kind of figure the matrix -- is we met with the medical community -- the Academy of Family Physicians, the Academy of Neurology, pediatrics, et cetera -- a group of about 15 leading medical doctors representing organizations across the country who have an interest in us dealing with this issue.

We've met with at-risk youth and children-advocacy groups, from the Afterschool Alliance to Promise America to Boys & Girls Clubs, et cetera, because part of it's in the culture as well as it is -- weapons themselves. We've met with the domestic violence prevention community. We've met with the justice organizations like the ABA, the American Bar Association, and National Legal Aid and Defender Association, prosecutors. We've met with civil rights organizations. We've met with national service organizations -- Kiwanis, Rotary International. We've met with youth groups. We've met with gun safety advocates. Yesterday, that meeting took place here. And the most -- probably the best-known is the Brady Campaign, but also a dozen other organizations that are concerned about gun safety.

And then we met with educators and parents, from the school boards to the State School Officers Association, again a dozen or so of those folks.

And maybe one of the most important things we've been focusing on is the mental health community. The American Academy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mental Health of America, National Endowment Center, the National Council of Community Behavioral Health Centers, because there is an argument among health providers that there is a -- that this is a major component to deal with the -- thinking about suicides as well that we're seeing today.

And yesterday we finished up in this room with I think it was 17 members of the faith community, which is -- all the years I've been doing this, this is the first time there has been overwhelming consent from the evangelical groups nationwide, but particularly those from rural areas, to the National Catholic Conference of Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Muslim community, because this does have a significant moral dimension, how we make the American community safer and how we go about it.

And today we meet with you. Later, I meet with some industry representatives as well as the NRA and the executive director of the Defense Small Arms Advocates Advisory Council, importers, et cetera.

So the point I'm trying to make to you is that we realize this is a -- requires all the stakeholders to give us their best ideas as to how we deal with what, like I said at the outset, is a complicated problem. A complicated problem; no single answer.

If we go back to -- like a lot of you, having been dealing with this issue since my days as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and going all the way back to the '70s, if you looked at every one of the tragic events and the fact that there's so much attention, it's hard to be able to pinpoint what you could have done to ensure it wouldn't have happened. But there's also things we know. We know that there are certain actions we take that have diminished -- have diminished the extent of the gun violence that otherwise has been occurring in the United States.

And so the kinds of things that -- there is an emerging set of recommendations, not coming from me, but coming from the groups we've met with. And I'm going to focus on the ones that relate primarily to gun ownership and the type of weapons that can be owned. And one is, there is a surprising -- so far -- a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks, not just close the gun show loophole but total, universal background checks including private sales. There has been a lot of discussion from the groups we've met with so far. I think the Attorney General, who has been in almost all the meetings with me, will tell you, is how we strengthen those background checks. What additional information should be available, if any? And how do we get the information -- for example, convicted felons in a state, how do they get on the NICS? How will they get in the NICS? That is a thing that the gun dealer goes to to check whether your background -- whether you're a felon. It doesn't do a whole lot of good if in some states they have a backlog of 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 felons that they never registered. So we've got to talk about -- there's a lot of talk about how we entice, or what is the impediment keeping states from relaying this information.

There's also a good deal of talk about gun safety and what responsibility goes along with gun ownership, which is something I'm very anxious to talk to all of you about. There's also been a -- it's surprising -- my colleagues, my former colleagues in the Senate, who have been pretty universally opposed to any restrictions on gun ownership or what type of weapons can be purchased, et cetera, there is -- I've never quite heard as much talk about the need to do something about high-capacity magazines as I've heard spontaneously from every group that we've met with so far.

And the last area, which is an area that has come up, is the whole question of the ability of any federal agency to do any research on the issue of gun violence. For example, we're meeting before the week is out with the gaming industry. I don't mean gambling; the video gaming industry. To use Pat Moynihan's expression when we first started talking about the so-called Biden crime bill back in the '80s, he used the example of - he said, we started -- we've been defining deviancy down. And he used the example of the assassination of the mob boss in 1936 in a barber chair in Chicago, making the front page of every paper in America. And then he stood on the Senate floor and he held up the -- I think it was The New York Times, on page 54 -- I'm making it up, but it was at the very back of the paper, where an entire family, including grandmother, mother, father, children, were basically assassinated in their apartment thinking it may have been about a drug deal. It made page 54. He said, we've defined deviancy down.

Well, one of the things that we're prohibited from doing -- beginning in the early part of this century in 2004 is this -- even the Center for Disease Control gathering up information about the kinds of injuries, and what are the injuries, and what are the source of the injury? I mean, it kind of reminded me the beginning of yesterday -- I was around in the '70s, and the only guy that may remember this -- I hope I don't insult him -- is Ray LaHood, because he knows all about the automobile industry as well as our whole question of traffic safety and highway safety.

There was a big fight when it first got to the Senate that had begun in the late '60s through early '70s where the automobile industry was very reluctant to allow the Department of Transportation to acquire statistics on the type of accidents that occurred. They were not able to literally acquire the information because the concern was it would lead to calls for some rational regulations related to everything from guard rails to automobiles.

And I remember -- Ray, you may remember -- that when we finally broke through, and the Department of Transportation started -- started keeping this information, we'd find out, if my memory is correct, that the vast majority of drivers operating the automobiles were killed in automobile accidents because the steering wheel actually broke their solar plexus, damaged their heart, or penetrated their upper body cavity.

The reason why the industry didn't want us -- everybody knowing that, or I guess my supposition was, it became logical to do something about steering wheels; have them so they can collapse; make sure that front end collisions, there's an ability to absorb shock.

And what did it lead to? It led to -- all of sudden, we said to automobile manufacturers -- you cannot make an automobile that doesn't have a steering wheel with the following -- the steering column with the following attributes. You have to make an automobile that can absorb X amount of shock.

All of sudden, we found out passengers were being killed because they were going through windshields; or, if memory serves me, skull fractures, injuries suffered on the cross bar. All of a sudden, we started talking about -- it made sense for -- let all of them have airbags. Well, they didn't want to have airbags. Well, guess what, you have airbags now. They're saving lives.

So there was a real effort to deny the government just gathering the information. And as you know, there are real restrictions now on the ability of any agency in the government to gather information about what kind of weapons are used most to kill people; how many weapons are used that are trafficked weapons; are weapons used in gang warfare in our major cities; are they legally purchased or are they purchased through straw men; is there trafficking? I mean, we don't have that information.

And the irony is we're prohibited under the laws in the appropriations laws from acquiring it. So I want to talk to you all a little bit about -- as an owner of shotguns, as a guy -- I'm no great hunter, mostly skeet shooting for me -- it's -- I don't quite understand why everybody would be afraid of whether or not we determine what is happening.

So there's a whole lot of things that I want to talk to you about, but I did feel obliged to tell you what we've done so far and what we're doing from here; where are we going to be meeting again. This afternoon we have meetings. Tomorrow I have meetings. I'm trying to set up telephone conferences with the manufacturers -- because there's got to be some common ground here to not solve every problem, but diminish the probability that what we've seen these -- occur -- and diminish the probability that our children are at risk in their schools, and diminish the probability that weapons will be used, and firearms will be used in dealing with the aberrant behavior that takes place in our society.

So that's what this is all about. There is no conclusion that I've reached. And my colleagues and I are putting together a series of recommendations for the President that will -- that he will take a look at. There's a real, very tight window to do this. I've committed to him I'd have these recommendations to him by Tuesday. And it doesn't mean it's the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act.

I'll conclude by saying, in all my years involved in these issues, there's nothing that has pricked the conscience -- the consciousness of the American people, there's nothing that has gone to the heart of the matter more than the visual image people have of little six-year-old kids riddled -- not shot -- riddled, riddled with bullet holes in their classroom.

And the public demands we speak to it. We're not sure that we can guarantee this will never happen again. As the President said, even if what we do only saves one life, it makes sense. And I think we can do a very -- without in any way imposing on or impinging on the rights of the Second Amendment that -- the Second Amendment guarantees. That's what this is about.

I thank you all for being here. And now with your permission and the permission of the press, we'll get down to some business here. And I thank the press.

Q -- what you're going to talk about in your other meeting today, sir?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we're going to talk about all the things I talked about here.


END 12:10 P.M. EDT