JANUARY 09: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (3rd R) makes brief remarks to the press at the beginning of a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (4th R) and gun violence survivors and victims and gun safety advocacy groups in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building January 9, 2013 in Washington, DC. President Barack Obama appointed Biden to oversee a task force on gun violence. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By David Jackson, USA TODAY
As he prepares a legislative package for President Obama's review,
Vice President Biden said Friday that multiple approaches are needed to
address the plague of gun violence.
"We know that there is no
silver bullet ... no seat belt you can put on," Biden said before
meeting with members of video game industry.
It's the latest in a
string of meetings Biden has held this week, with guests ranging from
gun-control advocates to gun rights supporters, hunters to retailers,
mayors to governors, lawyers to doctors, and faith leaders to
entertainment industry executives.
Biden has said he plans to make a series of recommendations to President Obama on Tuesday.
Obama
assigned Biden the task after the Dec. 14 shooting that killed 20
students and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. The
president said he plans to make a major push for gun legislation this
year; he may also issue executive orders.
The video game meeting
came after the nation's biggest gun lobby, the National Rifle
Association, accused the Obama administration of focusing only on gun
control.
"We don't think that a ban on so-called assault weapons,
which hasn't worked in the past, is going to work this time," NRA
President David Keene told NBC'sTodayshow.
Renewal of the
assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004 is an idea Obama has endorsed,
along with improvements to background checks of gun purchasers and
restrictions on the capacities of ammunition magazines.
Biden met
with the NRA and other gun-rights groups Thursday; on Friday, he
declined to respond to the group's post-meeting criticism. "I thought we
had a very straightforward, productive meeting," he told reporters.
The
president and vice president have said they respect the Second
Amendment right of gun ownership, and are looking for common-sense ways
to keep high-powered weapons away from people who shouldn't have them.
Obama
and Biden have also said they want to address other factors behind gun
violence, including mental health and cultural issues.
The latter
concern prompted the vice president's meeting with members of the video
game industry, some of whose products have been accused of desensitizing
young people to the nature of violence.
"You have not been singled out," Biden said. "I come to this meeting with no judgment."