Biden says gun violence in U.S. is an 'embarrassment’

The new measures include plans for the Justice Department to crack down on self-assembled "ghost guns," and make "stabilizing braces" - which effectively turn pistols into rifles - subject to registration under the National Firearms Act.

Biden said he will also ask the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to release an annual report on firearms trafficking in the United States, and make it easier for states to adopt "Red Flag" laws that flag at-risk individuals who own guns.

"Today we're taking steps to confront not just the gun crisis, but what is actually a public health crisis," Biden said, speaking in the Rose Garden to an audience filled with family members of victims of gun violence. He noted another mass shooting in South Carolina this week.

"This is an epidemic for God's sake and it has to stop," Biden said.