(Chris Parker, Headline USA) President Joe Biden held an event at the White House to celebrate the signing of his new gun restriction laws. However, one of his guests was not impressed.
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was killed during the 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high in Parkland, stood and began heckling the president during his speech. He claimed that Biden wasn’t doing enough to restrict gun rights, reported the New York Post.
At first, the president demanded that Oliver sit down, insisting, “you’ll going to hear what I have to say!” However, the president then said, “let the man speak,” even as security personnel escorted him away.
Attendees cheered the interruption as Biden struggled to regain their attention.
Biden’s recent gun control law requires more stringent background checks for citizens under 21 purchasing firearms. It also allocates billions for mental health services and incentive money for states to form crisis prevention programs and push red flag laws. It also prevents domestic abusers from purchasing a gun for five years.
Oliver later expressed his disdain during an interview with the Miami Herald.
“There’s nothing to celebrate,” Oliver said. “It’s a big lie. We lie between ourselves thinking we have a solution to this when we actually don’t.
“There was no need for this event at all.”
Shortly after the Parkland shooting, then-governor Rick Scott signed a Florida bill that implemented new gun restrictions while allowing trained teachers to carry in the classroom. Like Biden, Scott signed that bill while surrounded by relatives of the victims.
Democrats echoed Oliver’s claim that the government hasn’t done enough to restrict gun rights. Their proposals vary, from calling for increased restrictions on who can buy and sell guns to an outright ban on owning firearms by anyone other than police and soldiers.
However, those proposals are more likely to impact law-abiding citizens than criminals, given the number of firearms sold on the black market. They also echo cries for AR-15 and similar rifles to be banned, even though most gun crimes are committed with handguns.
