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May 24 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden called for tougher gun laws Wednesday as he and First Lady Jill Biden hosted a ceremony at the White House marking the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. "I realize this is a really tough day for all the families. Remembering is important, but it's also painful," the president said at the opening of the ceremony, where he and the first lady were flanked by candles bearing each of the victims' names.
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The shooting on May 24, 2022, killed 21 people, including 19 children, while leaving 17 others injured.
"In communities all across every part of America, at each place we'd hear the same message: 'Do something, for god's sake do something,'" Biden said Wednesday, referring to his numerous trips in the aftermath of school shootings.
"We did something afterwards but not nearly enough."
The 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Salvador Ramos, was shot dead by Border Patrol officers. The acting police chief, Lt. Mariano Pargas, resigned in November after facing widespread criticism for the department's delayed response as the shooting unfolded.
The Uvalde school district also suspended its entire police force for its failures and requested more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to be stationed on school grounds.
The bloodshed in Uvalde happened more than a week after another gunman shot and killed 10 people inside a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket as part of a premeditated attack that targeted Black people.
The shootings raised calls for increased gun reforms while Biden put pressure on Congress in a USA Today op-ed calling for a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines while arguing it should be mandatory for gun owners to securely store their firearms.
He reiterated that stance Wednesday.
"We still need to ban in my view AR-15 firearms, assault weapons. They've been used time and again is mass killings of children and innocent people," Biden said at the White House.
"We need to ban high-capacity magazines, the ability shoot 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 bullets without re-loading because today guns remain the number one killer of children in America."
Biden Wednesday also repeated is calls for background checks on all gun sales and urged lawmakers to repeal liability immunity for the gun industry.
"We can't end this (gun violence) epidemic until Congress passes some gun safely laws and keeps weapons of war off our streets and out of the hands of dangerous people."
"It's time to act. It's time to make our voices heard. Not as Democrats or Republicans, but as friends, as neighbors, as parents, as fellow Americans," Biden said Wednesday.
Biden last year signed the $13 billion Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which enhanced background checks for gun buyers under age 21 and made it a federal crime to obtain a firearm on the black market.
The measure also provided millions of dollars for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Earlier this month, Biden said he would seek to maximize more than a dozen actions outlined in the new gun safety law. Specifically, Biden said the Justice Department would work closely with states to ensure that people younger than 21 face stricter regulations when purchasing guns.
Biden has previously pushed for a nationwide ban on assault weapons and called for ending immunity from liability for the gun industry.
