Biden champions 'red flag' gun laws on fifth anniversary of Parkland shooting

Seventeen pupils and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018

Photos of the 17 people killed during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting are displayed on the fifth anniversary of the shooting in Parkland, Florida. AFP

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday championed a $231 million initiative from the Justice Department to help states administer “red flag” laws aimed at keeping guns away from people deemed to be dangerous, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

Seventeen pupils and staff were killed on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The mass shooting catalysed state-led gun reform pushed by the March for Our Lives campaign, a movement led by the Parkland survivors.

In Florida, then-governor Rick Scott raised the minimum age of purchasing a firearm from 18 to 21 and increased the availability of mental health tools for pupils.

But the wave of mass shootings and instances of gun violence continued long after Parkland, highlighted by tragedies at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; a supermarket in Buffalo, New York; an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; and a dance hall in Monterey Park, California, among others.

The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde was one of 46 school shootings to have occurred in the US last year, the most since 1999, analysis by The Washington Post showed.

The US has experienced a total of 2,740 mass shootings, with more than 14,000 people shot or killed, the Gun Violence Archive database reported.

Sixty-seven mass shootings have already been reported this year. And, 44 days into 2023, the US has recorded 5,217 deaths related to fire arms either through homicide/murder, unintentional use, defensive use or death by suicide.

In what became a sombre reminder of America's long-standing problems with gun violence, three students were killed and another five injured at Michigan State University on the eve of the Parkland anniversary.

“The fact that this shooting took place the night before this country marks five years since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, should cause every American to exclaim 'enough' and demand that Congress take action,” Mr Biden said.

The investment announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday will fund state crisis intervention court proceedings, including programmes designed to keep guns out of the hands of those deemed a danger to themselves or others.

The $231 million initiative is part of the bipartisan gun reform bill signed by Mr Biden last year following the school shooting in Uvalde.

Mr Biden has repeatedly called for a federal ban on assault-style weapons, such as the one used by gunman Nicholas Cruz in 2018. But those efforts are likely to bear little fruit in a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans, many of whom are Second Amendment absolutists.