President Biden, joined by other members of his administration, on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School Massacre and attempted bombing.
On April 20, 1999, two twelfth-grade students murdered 12 students and one teacher on April, and injured over 20 people, in what became the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado.
Biden expressed his sympathy in a Saturday statement memorializing the victims, and in posts on social media.
“Today marks 25 years since 13 innocent lives were taken at Columbine High School,” President Biden wrote on the social media site X.
Is his statement, Biden noted that Columbine, which at the time was the deadliest shooting at a K-12 school, has been followed by hundreds of other mass school shootings.
“Since Columbine, over 400 school shootings – from Newtown to Parkland to Uvalde – have exposed over 370,000 students to the horrors of gun violence. Students across the country now learn how to duck and cover before they learn how to read and write,” he wrote.
Biden said while he has “signed into law the most significant gun safety reform in nearly three decades,” Congress “must do more.”
We need universal background checks, a national red flag law, and we must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he added.
Vice President Harris echoed Biden’s call for change.
After expressing sympathy for the families and survivors of Columbine, Harris touted the work she and Biden have done to tighten up gun legislation.
“25 years after the massacre at Columbine High School, @POTUS and I have taken historic action to close the gun show loophole and ensure fewer guns are sold without background checks,” she wrote on X. “Now, Congress must save lives and pass universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.”
During a Saturday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration continues to pray for the victims of gun violence.
“As the president said, this is not normal, and it must end,” she said.
Tyler Mitchell