Rep. Jamaal Bowman calls on Biden to take unilateral action on guns: 'If it goes to the courts for a fight, so be it'

Rep. Jamaal Bowman is calling on the Biden administration to pass an executive order on gun reform, after three 9-year-old children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., last month.

“I wish the president would sign an executive order to ban assault rifles, and if it goes to the courts for a fight, so be it,” Bowman, D-N.Y., told Yahoo News on Wednesday. “The American people need to see that we give a crap. And that we're fighting. And that we're doing everything we can.”

Last month, Bowman confronted Republicans just outside the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., for not taking action on gun violence, after the slew of school shootings in the United States. “They’re all cowards! They won’t do anything to save the lives of our children at all,” he said on March 30.

Bowman says that viral moment, which included a heated exchange with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was unplanned. “The feeling was rage, frustration, confusion, just [a] lack of understanding. Why my colleagues on the other side of the aisle aren’t gonna take this issue more seriously, and don't respond with a sense of urgency,” Bowman said.

In a statement to Yahoo News, Massie said Bowman had wanted to discuss solutions to school shootings, “but when I offered a solution he began shouting. When he asked for data, I gave him data, but then he just shouted more. Bring facts.”

Massie also said that shootings have never happened at "the hundreds of schools that allow staff to carry." He cited a 2019 study from researcher John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center that examined school shootings from 2000 to 2018. Lott’s work is often cited by gun control opponents to argue that restrictions aren’t a solution to curbing gun violence.

For Bowman, senseless gun violence has been a part of his life since he was a kid, he told Yahoo News. “When I was in college, a good friend of mine, her and her 8-month-old baby [were] shot and killed in Connecticut. My other best friend's mother was killed, (the friend’s) brother was killed, and cousin was killed.”

Additionally, the congressional leader was an educator, a profession that is grappling with the scourge of gun violence in schools nationwide. The year before Bowman started his teaching career in New York, 12 students and one teacher were killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

“A couple of years later, Virginia Tech happened. A couple years later, the 6-year-olds in Connecticut were killed,” Bowman said. “And we had no national day of mourning, no national response, no ban on assault rifles, nothing.”

After the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., attempted to pass a law to expand background checks on the purchase of firearms, but the bipartisan bill failed in the Senate.

But last year, following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that requires tougher background checks for those under the age of 21.

"After 28 years of inaction, bipartisan members of Congress came together to heed the call of families across the country and passed legislation to address the scourge of gun violence in our communities,” Biden said in a statement after Congress passed the legislation.

During Bowman’s intense exchange at the Capitol, Massie, R-Ky, who in 2021 posted a holiday photo of him and his family members holding guns along with a note to Santa requesting more ammo, days after a school shooting in Michigan, suggested that the solution is arming teachers with firearms.

“More guns leads to more death,” Bowman responded. Bowman says teachers shouldn’t have to carry a firearm in schools, because gun-control policy is more effective.

“So a national ban on assault rifles, a national Red Flag Law, a national law that makes sure guns are safe and secure, national background checks, national waiting periods. There are policies that can be implemented that will be stronger than arming teachers,” Bowman said.

In Tennessee, three Democratic leaders participated in a gun violence protest in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, calling for stricter gun laws. Two of the representatives, who were Black, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, were expelled. Both have since been reinstated.

Bowman says the actions of the so-called “Tennessee Three” were necessary because the United States only reacts when it's forced to take action.

“Abolition, suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, those were all movements that led to policy changes. And we need that now more than ever, especially as we push back against the rise in the far-right MAGA Republicans,” Bowman said, referring to the slogan for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign that has come to define Trump’s supporters.

Some leaders say there isn’t much that can be done to decrease gun violence in the U.S. Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., stood on the steps of the Capitol after the Covenant School shooting and said, “We’re not going to fix it. Criminals are going to be criminals.”

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 146 mass shootings this year, which is, to date, more than the number of days in 2023. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it's “shameful” and “unacceptable” for Republicans to say there is nothing to be done.

“Our schools, our churches, our places of worship have now become deadly places for many Americans who have lost their lives just this past year,” Jean-Pierre said at a White House press briefing on March 29.

Bowman says Americans will remain frustrated until action is taken. “That's the sort of apathy and complacency that is common in the Republican Party and common for many career politicians,” he said. “We're sacrificing the lives of our kids and innocent people for the Second Amendment.”