President Biden Must Keep his Promises, Affirm His Commitment to End Gun Violence in his SOTU

One year and 49,000+ gun deaths into his presidency, Americans are in crisis because of gun violence. Even as he juggles multiple priorities, the President must demonstrate his resolve to ending the gun violence epidemic.  

Washington, D.C. —Today, even as the President is pulled by multiple enormous challenges, March For Our Lives is calling on the President to demonstrate leadership in his State of the Union address and announce swift action during his address to tackle the gun violence epidemic that is ravaging communities across the country.

With nearly 50,000 American gun deaths under his watch, it is high time for the President to stop selling meager policy proposals as a sweeping strategy, and for him to start keeping his campaign promises and announce a comprehensive plan to address this epidemic. Although challenges of enormous scale confront the President, we demand action on this critical, life-or-death issue. This is, after all, what leadership demands.

March For Our Lives is calling for the President, in his address, to:

• Acknowledge the scale and suffering of gun deaths in America, approaching 50,000 lives lost since this President took office, by declaring a national emergency on gun violence

• Announce a comprehensive plan to end gun violence; not a plan that addresses the crisis piecemeal, but one that confronts it wholesale, as we’ve outlined

• Appoint a Cabinet-level Director of Gun Violence Prevention to marshall the federal response to gun violence and lead the Administration’s efforts via a National Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

These aren’t new demands from gun violence survivors or advocates, but they are still desperately needed. Even as the President has rebuffed our demands, we have to ask: Mr. President, has your strategy worked? Have gun deaths plummeted?

President Biden met with young people and survivors on the campaign trail and promised us action. Instead, in his first year, he has offered excuses, punted the responsibility for nearly 50,000 gun deaths onto congress, and patted himself on the back for politically convenient piecemeal solutions. He hasn’t accepted any of our proposals, nor has he made moves on any of his own campaign promises to repeal PLCAA or tackle this epidemic in earnest.

The fact is that gun deaths have escalated under the President’s watch. Every day, we lose more and more Americans to an entirely preventable epidemic. Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for America’s children. The President has an opportunity to reset his commitment and announce immediate, urgent action at his State of the Union address. We expect it and will accept nothing less.