"Remembering is important, but it's also painful," President Joe Biden said at the White House on Wednesday as he honored the first anniversary of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which saw 19 children and two teachers killed.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by calling on Congress to end the gun violence "epidemic"

  • Biden, joined by First Lady Jill Biden, spoke Wednesday afternoon to honor the victims of Texas’ deadliest school shooting, which came just days after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York

  • Both shootings led to the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety legislation signed into law in decades

  • While the passage of the bill was a major victory for gun safety advocates, the country has still been plagued by mass shootings, including at an elementary school in Nashville, Tenn., in March that saw three students and three teachers killed

Biden, joined by First Lady Jill Biden, spoke Wednesday afternoon to honor the victims of Texas’ deadliest school shooting. There were 21 candles burning behind Biden as he spoke, one for each victim of the massacre. Before he spoke, the president and first lady stopped to look at each one.

"One year ago today, Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, turned into another killing field in America," the president said, recalling their visit just days after the shooting. "We spent hours with the grieving families who are broken and never ever will quite be the same. To the families of the children and the educators who we know one year later it's still so raw for you, a year of missed birthdays and holidays, school plays and soccer games, just that smile. A year of everyday joy is gone forever."

Biden recounted a conversation he had with a grieving Uvalde mother at a vigil: "One of the moms said, 'When I lay in bed and turn on my side, envisioning her staring back at me, I want so badly to be part of an alternative reality that just doesn't exist. This is my reality. Because my 10-year-old daughter was murdered in her fourth grade classroom." 

The shooting last year came just days after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

"Standing there in Uvalde, Jill and I couldn't help but think that too many schools, too many everyday places have become killing fields in communities all across every part of America," he continued. "And in each place, we hear the same message: 'Do something. For God's sake, please do something. We did something afterwards. But not nearly enough."

Both shootings led to the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety legislation signed into law in decades. The law toughens background checks for the youngest gun buyers, provides funding for states to enhance crisis prevention programs and put in place so-called “red flag” laws, which allow authorities to take firearms away from people determined to be dangerous, criminalized straw purchases and arms trafficking, and other provisions.

While the passage of the bill was a major victory for gun safety advocates, the country has still been plagued by mass shootings, including at an elementary school in Nashville, Tenn., in March that saw three students and three teachers killed, and at a Dallas-area shopping mall earlier this month that saw 8 killed and 7 others wounded.

The bill also fell short of addressing some of the other issues that Biden, Democrats in Congress and other advocates have called for, including universal background checks and a ban on military style semi-automatic firearms.

Biden on Wednesday once again called on Congress to do more to address the scourge of gun violence.

"We still need to ban, in my view, AR-15 assault weapons once again," the president said. "You know they've been used time and again in mass killings of innocent children and people."

"We can't end this epidemic until Congress passes some common sense gun safety laws and keep weapons of war off our streets and out of the hands of dangerous people," he said. "Until states do the same thing. How many more parents will live their worst nightmare before we stand up the gun lobby, to establish universal background checks,  establish a national red flag law, require safe storage of firearms and immunity from liability for gun manufacturers?"

"Even a majority of responsible gun owners support these common sense actions to save lives and keep our community safe," he continued. "It's time to act. It's time to act. It's time to make our voices heard. Not as Democrats or as Republicans, but as friends, as neighbors, as parents, as fellow Americans."

"Erase the invisible line that has divided our nation. Come up with a solution and fix what's broken and make the changes that are necessary to prevent this from ever happening again," Biden later added.

Those reforms were not able to get through Congress while Democrats controlled both chambers, and it’s highly unlikely they could pass a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

In his remarks last year in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting, Biden slammed lobbyists, pro-gun lawmakers and "those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws.”

“Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God's name is our backbone, or the courage to deal with and stand up to the lobbies?” Biden asked at the time.

“It's time to turn this pain into action for every parent, for every citizen in this country. We have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: it's time to act,” he added.

“For those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget," Biden said last year. "We can do so much more. We have to do more.”