Biden calls for a crackdown on gun violence in the US, an "international disgrace"

US President Joe Biden announced a series of limited measures to curb gun violence in the United States, calling on Congress to stop tolerating a problem he described as an "international disgrace".

Two weeks after mass shootings that left 18 dead in Georgia and Colorado, Biden unveiled several initiatives to curb gun violence, but acknowledged that he will not be able to do much on his own if Congress does not stop blocking any attempts to increase gun control. "Gun violence in this country is an epidemic. And it is an international disgrace," Biden denounced.

The US president recalled that every day 106 people are killed by gunfire in the United States, every month there are 53 femicides committed with guns, and that gun violence "impacts the black and Latino population much more". "The idea that so many people die each and every day in the United States because of gun violence is a stain on our character as a country," he said.

Biden's room for manoeuvre to tackle the problem unilaterally is very limited, and the Republican minority in the Senate has enough votes to prevent any major reform.

Biden made his frustration clear, denouncing the "hypocritical" arguments of conservatives - and the National Rifle Association (NRA), which funds many political campaigns - that the right to bear arms cannot be limited at all because it is guaranteed by the second amendment to the Constitution. "No amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can't yell that there's a fire when you're in a movie theatre and call it free speech," he said.

Therefore, he insisted that Congress should ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, as it did between 1994 and 2004, as well as pass two bills that would "close loopholes" in the background check system for gun buyers.

He added that, if lawmakers were only willing to pass a single gun control measure, he would ask them to "remove the immunity that gun manufacturers have", which are the "only industry in the country" that cannot be sued in court for the harm their products cause.

Among the unilateral measures Biden announced Thursday was his order to the Justice Department to come up with a rule within a month to help curb the proliferation of homemade guns, known as "ghost guns".

These guns can be assembled in about half an hour from off-the-shelf parts kits and are difficult for authorities to trace because they lack serial numbers.

"I want us to require vendors and manufacturers to make key parts with serial numbers and run background checks on those who want to buy" the kits, Biden said.

The Justice Department will also develop measures within two months to regulate so-called "arm brace" devices, which convert handguns into rifles when attached, making them much more accurate.

The perpetrator of the shooting at a supermarket in Boulder (Colorado) that left 10 people dead a fortnight ago used one of these devices to carry out his action, in which there were no survivors.

In addition, the Biden administration will issue guidance in two months for more states to pass laws allowing judges to temporarily ban firearms from certain individuals who may be dangerous to themselves or others, at the request of family members or law enforcement.

Nineteen states in the country have already passed such legislation, according to the White House, and Biden wants Congress to push for a nationwide bill.

The president also ordered the Justice Department to issue an annual report on gun trafficking, and announced his plan to nominate gun control advocate David Chipman as the new head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

It is unclear whether Chipman's nomination will pass muster in the Senate, which has not confirmed an ATF director since 2013 and where the gun debate raises passions.

"This is just the beginning. We have a lot of work to do," Biden said, pledging more executive orders to address what he sees as a "public health crisis".

Among the guests at his White House speech was former Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and seriously wounded in a 2011 Arizona shooting and has become one of the nation's best-known anti-gun violence activists.

After more than two decades of congressional inaction on gun violence, Giffords made it clear today that she remains determined to remind lawmakers of the dimensions of the problem.

The organisation that bears her name announced that next week it will install a memorial to the nearly 40,000 Americans who die each year from gun violence in front of the Capitol in the form of 4,000 vases, each containing ten white silk roses.