President Barack Obama has long supported the ban of assault weapons, but he has been increasingly vocal about it in recent days. | AP Photo White House steps up push for assault weapons ban Obama is following through on his pledge to try to reduce 'weapons of war' after the Orlando massacre.

The White House is stepping up its efforts to renew the assault weapons ban, while trying to boost separate gun control measures that the Senate plans to vote on next week.

On Monday, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett will host a mass conference call for the general public “about the need to renew the assault weapons ban and the different gun safety measures the Senate is set to vote on in the coming week.”


Vice President Joe Biden announced the call in a response to a petition on the White House’s “We the People” platform on Friday. The request for a ban on the AR-15 assault-style rifle was posted on Sunday, in the immediate aftermath of the Orlando shooting in which were 49 people were killed, and already had nearly 200,000 signatures by Friday.

“The president and I agree with you,” Biden wrote. “Assault weapons and high-capacity magazines should be banned from civilian ownership.”

The Obama administration has pledged to respond to any petition that accumulates 100,000 signatures in a month. This was "one of fastest we’ve ever had to cross the threshold," said a White House official.

Obama has long supported the ban, but he has been increasingly vocal about it in recent days, condemning the easy access to “weapons of war” like the Sig Sauer MCX that Omar Mateen used to kill many people at close range. But until Friday’s announcement, it was unclear whether his administration would do anything more substantial to mobilize for a ban.

Hillary Clinton has also stepped up her calls for an assault weapons ban on the trail.

However, on the Hill, Democrats have focused on getting votes for measures with broader support, including barring people on terror watch lists from buying guns and expanding background checks. The Senate is set to vote on variations of those measures on Monday — though barring major changes, none appear likely to pass.

The AR-15 has become the most popular rifle in the country since the original assault weapons ban expired in 2004. In the wake of the Newtown shooting, as gun control groups have become more politically sophisticated, they’ve increasingly focused on measures like background checks to stress that their goal is to take guns out of the hands of dangerous people, not law-abiding Americans. They also not that must gun violence is committed with handguns.

But the role of assault weapons in high-profile mass shootings gives the issue emotional weight. In his response, Biden noted that they were used in in Aurora, Colorado, to kill 12 people; in Roseburg, Oregon, to kill 10 and in Newtown, Connecticut, to kill 26.

“A single person killed that many people in just a few minutes. Not in a war zone. Here in America — in a classroom,” Biden wrote.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Biden will be on a call about the assault weapons ban on Monday.