Biden unveils initial plans to curb gun violence in US

Washington DC: Declaring the spike in gun violence in the US an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment," President Joe Biden has outlined actions to regulate certain home-made firearms and pressed Congress to renew the country's long-expired ban on assault weapons. Under mounting pressure to act after a spate of mass shootings across America, Biden on Thursday said that whether Congress acts or not, he was going to use all the resources at his disposal as President to keep the American people safe from gun violence.

Biden said members of Congress have offered plenty of thoughts and prayers but they have passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence. "Enough prayers. Time for some action," Biden said at the White House Rose Garden in the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris, lawmakers and advocates for stricter gun laws. Hours after Biden's address, a gunman killed one person and injured five others at a cabinet-making shop in Texas. A state trooper was also shot and injured while taking the suspect into custody.

On Wednesday, five people, including two young children, killed in South Carolina.

The fact that so many people dying every single day from gun violence in America is a "blemish on our character as nation," the president said.

"Every day in this country, 316 people are shot. Every single day. A hundred and six of them die every day. Our flag was still flying at half-staff for the victims of the horrific murder of 8 primarily Asian American people in Georgia when 10 more lives were taken in a mass murder in Colorado," he said.

But between those two incidents, less than one week apart, there were more than 850 additional shootings that took the lives of more than 250 people, and left 500 injured, he said.

"This is an epidemic, for God's sake. And it has to stop."

"Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it's an international embarrassment," the president said.