Vice President Joe Biden tried Tuesday to rally Congress to act on gun control legislation, saying that “the country has changed and [politicians] will pay a political price for not getting engaged and dealing with gun safety.”
“As proud as the president and I am of the progress we have made, we need Congress to act,” Biden said in a speech delivered at the White House. “The American people are demanding it. We need to make sure that the voices of the ones we lost are the loudest ones we hear in this fight.”
Specifically, Biden was referring to politicians like Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who saw her approval rating plummet after she voted against legislation that would expand background checks. Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) and Sen. Mark Begich’s (D-AK) ratings also took a nosedive. On the otherside, Democrats in red states, like Sens. Mary Landrieu (LA) and Kay Hagan (NC), got a slight boost in their approval ratings after they voted in favor of the gun control legislation.
The vice president also released a set of federal guidelines Tuesday for developing high quality emergency operations for schools, higher education institutions and places of worship.
“We made sure the guide reflects all the lessons we’ve learned over the years,” he said.
