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President Joe Biden on Friday night harshly criticized the use of high capacity assault weapons in his first public remarks on gun violence following this week’s shooting in Maine that\u00a0left at least 18 people dead.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Biden asked: \u201cWho the hell needs an assault weapon that can hold, in some cases, up to 100 rounds?\u201d<\/p>\n
Without referring to the Lewiston shootings directly, Biden said it was \u201coutrageous\u00a0what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow along for live coverage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Police named\u00a0Robert Card, 40, a firearms instructor and an Army reservist, as a suspect and an arrest warrant on murder charges has been issued in the Lewiston shootings. The assault rifle-style weapon he is alleged to have used was purchased legally this year, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said. Card remains at large.<\/p>\n Biden has\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0called on Congress\u00a0to send legislation to his desk banning assault weapons.<\/p>\n In a statement Thursday, Biden urged congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and to suspend gun manufacturers\u2019 \u201cimmunity from liability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars \u2014 physical and mental \u2014 of this latest attack,\u201d Biden said in the statement.<\/p>\n Getting an assault weapons ban bill through the current Congress is highly unlikely.<\/p>\n In his first televised interview as the new House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson brushed off calls for an assault weapons ban. The Louisiana Republican on Thursday told Fox News’ Sean Hannity: \u201cThe problem is the human heart. It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons.”<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded in a statement Friday saying Republicans have “spent decades” siding with gun industry lobbyists and “bending over backwards to ensure weapons of war remain on our streets and in dangerous hands.”<\/p>\n Congress last passed a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994; it expired a decade later when Republicans controlled both chambers.<\/p>\n The Democratic-led House passed an assault weapons ban last year, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not brought a similar bill to the floor for a vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n