By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
President Joe Biden doubled down on his demand for Congress to take action on gun control in response to the deadly shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky Monday, pointing the finger of blame at Republicans on Capitol Hill for opposing restrictive legislation.
Fox News quoted Biden, who declared, “Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives. When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”
As of Tuesday morning, five people have now died from wounds they suffered when a gunman identified as Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old bank employee who reportedly had learned he was about to be dismissed, opened fire. The victims have been identified as Tommy Elliott, 63, Joshua Barrick, 40, James Tutt, 64, Juliana Farmer, 57, and Deana Eckert, also 57.
According to CNN, Sturgeon wrote a note to “loved ones” before leaving for the bank. The shooting occurred at about 8:30 a.m., and within minutes, Louisville police responded and the suspect had been “neutralized.”
The Louisville attack came exactly two weeks to the day after another deadly shooting rampage unfolded in Nashville, Tennessee at a Christian school where three adults and three 9-year-old children were slain before police stormed the building and took down the killer.
In Louisville, police also rushed into the bank, and one officer, identified as Nickolas Wilt, 26, who graduated only ten days before from the academy, was severely wounded. He remains in critical condition. Several others were injured.
Biden came into office with a gun control scheme that included a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines,” expanded (universal) background checks, restrict gun purchases to one per month, regulate modern semi-auto rifles under the National Firearms Act with licensing and registration, institute a gun “buy back” program, close alleged “loopholes” in existing laws, extend background check time frames from three to ten days, and other restrictions.
But that was before the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Bruen ruling last June. Fallout from that 6-3 decision has had a noticeable impact on Second Amendment-related cases, and did away with the two-step process lower courts had been using to essentially weigh decisions in favor of the challenged gun control laws.
Biden acknowledged last month that he has already “gone the full extent of my executive authority, to do on my own, anything about guns.”
