Joe Biden admits defeat on gun control but urges lawmakers to keep trying

The vice-president urged state and local politicians to continue
fighting for stricter gun laws and touted the White House’s push
to develop ‘smart guns’

Lois Beckett
Wednesday 25 May 2016 01.20 BST

Vice-president Joe Biden admitted defeat on passing stricter gun laws at the federal level, telling local leaders Tuesday, “We’re probably not going to get much more done in the next nine months.” But he urged state and local politicians to continue fighting.

“Don’t quit on this,” he said, at a meeting in Washington of local politicians from 48 states. Biden urged them to “set the table” for the next president “to be able to get some of this done”.

He also touted the White House’s push to develop personalized “smart guns”, arguing that safer guns could be a “game changer” in a country that has almost as many firearms as people.

The White House convened the off-the-record meeting to share tactics and strategies as part of the Obama administration’s increasingly modest efforts to push forward “commonsense” measures to address gun violence.

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