The White House on Thursday renewed its call for Congress to enact gun safety legislation following a string of shootings Wednesday near Orlando, Fla., that saw three people killed, including Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons.
Authorities said that a 19-year-old suspect was arrested in connection with the shootings that left Lyons, 24, and two others dead — Nathacha Augustin, 38, and a 9-year-old girl. Spectrum News 13 photojournalist Jesse Walden was also critically injured in the shooting; Walden is awake and stable, and has been talking to colleagues and authorities.
The suspect, Keith Melvin Moses, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Augustin’s killing, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said, with “numerous more charges” to follow.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday expressed the Biden administration’s condolences to the families of the victims while calling for Congress to pass new gun safety laws.
“I want to say that our hearts go out to the family of Dylan Lyons, the Spectrum News reporter killed in Orange County, Florida, yesterday, and to the families of the other two community members who were killed by the same shooter, including a nine-year-old girl with her whole life in front of her,” Jean-Pierre said at the top of Thursday’s briefing to reporters. "The girl's mother and a Spectrum photojournalist were also seriously injured, and we are keeping them in our thoughts and hoping they have a full recovery.”
“Too many lives are being ripped apart by gun violence,” she continued. “The president continues to call on Congress to act on gun safety and for state officials to take action at the state level.”
Congress last summer passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety legislation in decades following mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Democrats and Republicans came together to negotiate on the bill, which tightens restrictions on gun trafficking and straw purchases, enhances background checks for gun buyers between 18-21, and includes funding for red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs.
But it’s unclear what gun safety measures are possible with the House of Representatives now under Republican control after last year’s midterm elections. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act fell short of what President Joe Biden wanted, including universal background checks and a ban on military style semi-automatic firearms.
Those reforms could not get through Congress while Democrats controlled both chambers, so it’s highly unlikely they could pass a Republican-controlled House. Democrats have introduced a number of gun safety measures, including an assault weapons ban, but it’s unclear whether they will come up for a vote.
Jean-Pierre also took aim at Republican leaders in Florida who are trying to pass permit less carry measure.
“Instead of following in the footsteps of so many other states, taking common sense action to enact state level assault weapons ban[s] and other gun safety measures, Republican state officials in Florida are currently leading an effort to pass a permit-less concealed carry law, which would eliminate the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon,” she said.
“This is the opposite of common sense gun safety, and the people of Florida who have paid a steep price for state and congressional inaction on guns — from Parkland to Pulse nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better,” she added.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, Wednesday’s incident was the 83rd mass shooting in the United States so far this year.