Sixteen Democratic presidential candidates will attend what organizers are calling a “gun sense forum” tomorrow in Des Moines.
Former Vice President Joe Biden previewed his remarks yesterday, telling reporters at the Iowa State Fair that a ban on assault weapons does not violate Second Amendment rights.
“We can get it done and we can get background checks done. We can get it done because the public is finally at the point where they are sick of it,” Biden said after speaking at The Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox on the fairgrounds. “…I’ve got it done before and I can get it done again.”
Biden was the chairman of a key U.S. Senate committee when the assault weapons ban passed congress in 1994. It expired in 2004.
Saturday’s forum is sponsored by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. Bloomberg will speak. Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke has recorded a video message for the forum. O’Rourke has spent the past week in his hometown of El Paso, where a gunman killed 22 people last Saturday.