President Joe Biden marked the nine-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre on Tuesday in a video honoring the victims, highlighting the actions his administration has already taken to combat gun violence and also pledging to do more in the years ahead. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden marked the nine-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre on Tuesday in a video honoring the victims

  • Biden highlighted the actions his administration has already taken to combat gun violence while also pledging to do more in the years ahead

  • At the time of the shooting, Biden was serving as vice president to Barack Obama, and he said it was one of the “saddest days we were in office”

  • Biden called on Congress to pass his Build Back Better legislation, which includes a $5 billion investment in community violence interventions

On Dec. 14, 2012, lone gunman Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children between the ages of six and seven, as well as six adult educators and staff members, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 

To date, the shooting remains the deadliest at a U.S. elementary school.  

“No matter how long is spent, every one of those families relives the news they got that day,” Biden said in Tuesday’s video message, adding: “Everything changed that morning for you. And the nation was shocked.” 

At the time of the shooting, Biden was serving as vice president to Barack Obama, and he said it was one of the “saddest days we were in office those eight years.”

Biden would go on to lead a gun control task force that would facilitate conversations between gun control and gun rights activists. 

The president on Tuesday noted that in the months after the shooting, victims’ families worked alongside the Obama-Biden administration to issue nearly two dozen executive orders and recommend half as many policy changes to Congress to make it harder for Americans to access certain kinds of guns. 

But Biden also acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in the fight against gun violence, lamenting that school shootings have continued to take the lives of children at schools across the country. 

“In Parkland, Florida, and Oxford, Michigan – in countless communities across the country, there's these horrific shootings, big national headlines that embarrass us as a nation,” he said.

Biden’s administration has taken a number of actions to reduce gun violence since he took office. In April, Biden — calling gun violence in America an “epidemic” and a “public health crisis” — announced six specific actions the federal government would take to tackle the issue. 

The executive orders included:

  • The Department of Justice (DOJ) proposing a rule to stop the proliferation of so-called “ghost guns” within 30 days

  • The DOJ proposing a rule to classify stabilizing braces for pistols as subject to the National Firearms Act within 60 days

  • The DOJ conducting a review and providing models of possible red-flag legislation to state and local lawmakers within 60 days

  • The DOJ conducting a comprehensive report on firearms trafficking in the United States

  • The federal government investing more than $1 billion in evidence-based community violence intervention programs

  • Biden nominating David Chipman to serve as the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Some of the actions were more effective than others. 

Biden’s plans took a hit when David Chipman, his nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate, forcing the president to ultimately withdraw the nomination. 

While the administration has yet to announce a replacement nominee for Chipman, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters there would be an announcement “at an appropriate time.” 

That was in September, and the White House has given little in the way of updates since — Psaki in early December said: “We have to nominate a new person, and when the president finds the right person I'm sure he’ll be prepared to do that.”

Biden on Tuesday also called on Congress to pass his Build Back Better legislation, which includes a $5 billion investment in community violence intervention strategies. The funds will “support the trusted leaders who work directly with people who are most likely to commit gun crimes or become gun victims,” Biden said. 

The president also called for the Senate to pass two other pieces of legislation: One would close loopholes for background checks at gun shows and online; another would close the so-called “Charleston loophole” and would give the FBI more time to conduct background checks before a gun is sold in order to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Still, Biden has limited power to act alone — and with an evenly-divided Senate, each bill is likely to face a steep uphill battle. 

“We have to keep up the pressure,” Biden concluded his video message on Tuesday. “God bless all those innocent lives in Newtown and all across the country. And all of you who have been the victims of gun violence, and your families have suffered from it.”