A father of a mass shooting victim interrupted President Biden during his White House speech on Monday.
The president was celebrating the passage of the bipartisan gun bill when the father yelled at him and asked him to do more to stop gun violence.
Biden Interrupted by a Mass Shooting Victim’s Father
Biden addressed a crowd of lawmakers, activists, and mass shooting survivors at the White House to celebrate the recently passed gun control bill, the Safer Communities Act.
Manuel Oliver, the father of mass shooting victim Joaquin Oliver, was among the attendees of the meeting. He ended up interrupting the president during his speech. Eventually, Oliver was removed from the White House.
As Biden said lawmakers made “meaningful progress” to stop gun violence, Oliver yelled from the audience, urging him to do “more than that” to control this violence.
Biden's speech is interrupted by Manuel Oliver, the father of a Parkland shooting victim. https://t.co/XMWsOIzysO pic.twitter.com/5oIm2qmXCg
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 11, 2022
While most of the comments of Oliver remained inaudible, he was heard saying Biden should open an office in the White House to deal with gun violence and name a director to that office.
Oliver also tweeted ahead of the event that “CELEBRATION has no space” in a society where 19 kids were massacred just a month ago.
Speaking in a CNN interview later Monday, Oliver said calling these events celebrations makes them look like a party or a wedding. So, the White House should refrain from dubbing them celebrations, as it may hurt the sentiments of the victims’ families.
A man who got up during @POTUS remarks on gun control is escorted out of the White House event. pic.twitter.com/p0YpWezmRq
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) July 11, 2022
Seeing a heckler in the White House is a rare event, due to tough security policies.
Though Oliver was invited, being a father of a victim and a gun control activist, he eventually disturbed the proceedings of the event.
Oliver Repeatedly Asked Biden to Control Gun Violence
This is not the first time Oliver pushed the president to do more to reduce gun violence. Earlier this year, he climbed a crane and asked the government to take decisive actions against mass shootings.
He also recorded a video in which he mentioned asking for a meeting with the president, but he was not entertained by the White House.
Since losing his 17-year-old son in the mass shooting, Oliver has been working as a gun control activist. Like many other activists, he also criticized the bipartisan bill, stating it is not enough to prevent gun violence in the United States.
A number of lawmakers also attended the event, including Republican Senator John Cornyn, who led 15 GOP senators to vote for the gun bill to avoid the legislative roadblock of the filibuster.
During his speech, Biden noted this is the time to “galvanize” since the bill will protect Americans. Similarly, the president established the country is currently “awash in weapons of war.”
While selling his so-called gun control agenda, the president stated assault weapons “do not make sense” in the hands of civilians. As these weapons were banned earlier, Biden continued, he would burn the midnight oil to ban them again.
