In front of an energized audience of lawmakers and families impacted by gun violence at the White House Rose Garden on Friday, President Joe Biden declared the cost of inaction “can no longer be the lives of our children,” while announcing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention. 

“There comes a point where our voices are so loud, our determination so clear that our efforts can no longer be stopped,” Biden said. “We're reaching that point – we've reached that point today in my view, where the safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot.” 

The new federal office will seek to fully implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Biden signed last year as well as the executive orders he has also already signed, identify new executive actions the president can take to address the issue and boost support to those impacted by gun violence, including offering mental health and financial assistance, Biden said Friday. 

The president pitched the office as being ready to help communities after shootings “the same way FEMA responds to natural disasters” – a line that received a boisterous cheer from the crowd. 

“Shootings are the ultimate superstorm,” he added. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, who also spoke at Friday’s event, will lead the office, with both Harris and Biden noting her experience both as a former district attorney and as California's attorney general. 

“I've comforted children who have been traumatized by losing a parent or a sibling. We owe it to them and to those living in fear, to act without delay,” Harris said, repeating a line she emphasized at a gun safety conference in Chicago last month: “We do not have a moment to spare, nor a life to spare.” 

Harris has been a leading voice for the administration on this issue, speaking at events around the country. 

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., the youngest member of Congress, who said he got involved in politics because “I didn’t want to get shot in school,” introduced the president on Friday. 

The office is limited in what it can do without Congressional action. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed last year has been touted as the most significant and sweeping gun violence bill in decades. 

The legislation toughened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keeps firearms from more domestic violence offenders and helps states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous.

Most of its $13 billion cost sought to bolster mental health programs and aid schools. 

But there has not been any public indication Republicans in Congress want to go further action on the topic. 

Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a ban on so-called “assault weapons” – a sentiment he reiterated on Friday. 

“Let me be very clear: if members of the Congress refuse to act,” Biden said, “then we will need to elect new members of Congress.”

Firearms are the number one killer of children in the U.S. So far this year, 220 children younger than 11 have died by guns and 1,054 between the ages of 12 and 17 have died.

As of Friday, there have been at least 35 mass killings in the U.S. so far in 2023, leaving at least 171 people dead, not including shooters who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter was killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, attended Friday’s event. 

“I think a lot of times gun violence falls through the cracks because there wasn’t a dedicated office and now that there will be, I feel like we have a team who can focus just on this and start taking steps to move forward,” she told Spectrum News in an interview.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.