US President Joe Biden is pushing for a ban on assault rifles. At a hate crime summit in Washington, he condemned the corrosive impact of hate-fueled violence on democracy and public security. Hate is always revived if it only gets enough oxygen: “In recent years, hate has been given far too much oxygen in our politics, in our media and on the Internet.”
Representatives from politics, business, civil society, the church and the police, who are particularly committed to combating violence, hate crime and radicalization in the USA, were invited to the summit. “Too much hatred has fueled extremist violence and allowed it to spread,” Biden said. The US intelligence services have identified right-wing extremism as the greatest terrorist threat to the country. Biden repeatedly calls for stricter gun laws – but the Republicans repeatedly block such projects. Assault rifles were banned in the United States from 1994 to 2004. Then the ban expired.
Biden said evil will not win. “It will not rule us.” And the advocates of white supremacy would not have the final say. “And this poison and violence cannot be the history of our time,” Biden said.
The US President expressed disappointment that violence against the LGBT community, Jews, immigrants and other marginalized groups has increased again after the US made great strides towards an inclusive society. “We must choose to be a nation of hope, unity and optimism, not a nation of fear, division and hatred,” Biden said.
Deadly hate crimes continue to occur in the United States. In May, a racially motivated gunman killed 10 people in and outside a convenience store in the city of Buffalo with an assault rifle. The majority of the victims were black. During a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville about five years ago, a woman was killed when a right-wing extremist drove his car into a group of counter-demonstrators. “We must shine the light of truth, justice and justice on this issue and reject those who want us to live in fear of those around us,” the victim’s mother said during the summit.