Biden renews calls for gun reform after Indianapolis shooting

President Joe Biden on Friday called gun violence an “epidemic” in the U.S. and renewed calls on Congress to bring gun reform legislation to his desk in the wake of yet another mass shooting, this one at a shipping center in Indianapolis.

The mass shooting at a FedEx facility Thursday night left eight people dead and follows mass shootings last month in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo. It was at least the third mass shooting in the city this year, Indianapolis officials said at a press conference Friday. Those officials said they hadn’t yet identified the suspect or a motive and offered scant details on the situation.

“Gun violence is an epidemic in America. But we should not accept it. We must act,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “God bless the eight fellow Americans we lost in Indianapolis and their loved ones, and we pray for the wounded for their recovery.”

In his statement, the president ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff as he did in the wake of the shootings in Atlanta and Boulder.

Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting, as had Vice President Kamala Harris. Indianapolis Police Deputy Chief Craig McCartt said the gunman, who died by apparent suicide, "appeared to randomly start shooting."

Last week, Biden announced a spate of executive actions aimed at slowing gun violence, which included reforms to reign in so-called ghost guns and requiring the Department of Justice to issue a new report on gun trafficking annually. He also called for the Justice Department to put out a “model” red flag law, also known as an extreme risk protective order, for states to adopt.

In the statement Friday, Biden renewed his calls for the Senate to take up House-passed legislation aimed at closing the so-called Charleston loophole, adding universal background checks and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

“Too many Americans are dying every single day from gun violence,” Biden said in the statement. “It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation. We can, and must, do more to act and to save lives.”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said last week that he thinks that Congress can get bipartisan legislation through, but such legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate, which Democrats hold by the slimmest possible majority and would need 10 Republicans to get on board. Democrat-backed efforts to enact gun reform legislation have failed in recent years.

“We can’t give up just because it’s hard, just because the politics are perplexing,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

The push comes as Congress is weighing Biden’s multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package, as well as proposals on racial justice. Psaki said Friday that “leaders can do more than one thing at one time.”