President Biden concedes he is powerless to act on guns without Congress

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday declared himself powerless to respond to the scourge of gun violence in America, a remarkably blunt admission one day after an assailant killed six people, including three children, at a school in Nashville, Tennessee.

“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” Biden told reporters, responding to questions about what actions he could take to prevent mass shootings.

It was a stark and surprising statement by the president, who essentially threw up his hands in the face of one of the most intractable problems facing American society.

While the political system has remained all but deadlocked for more than a decade on major changes to gun laws — despite one horrifying shooting after another — Biden sought to shift the burden to the senators and representatives who have so far refused to act.

“The Congress has to act,” Biden told reporters as he headed for an economic event at a North Carolina semiconductor plant. “The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre; it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that. And so, I think the Congress should be passing the assault weapons ban.”

On Tuesday, Republicans made it clear they were not willing to budge from their opposition to assault weapons bans and other aggressive measures.

“With respect to any discussion of legislation, it’s premature,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., citing an “ongoing investigation” and the need to collect more facts.

Other members of his party went further, seizing on the gender of the assailant, who authorities said identified as transgender, as a way to shift the conversation away from gun safety measures. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said in a post on Twitter that the tragedy suggested that “giving into these ideas” about accepting transgender people was “dangerous.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., highlighted questions about the shooter’s gender identity, which she said meant that “everyone can stop blaming guns now.”

Biden reminded reporters Tuesday that as a senator he led the successful effort in 1994 to pass a ban on assault weapons as a way to reduce the use of “weapons of war” in shootings at schools, shopping malls and elsewhere. The ban stayed in place until Congress let it lapse 10 years later.