Vice President Kamala Harris urged Congress to act after visiting the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park to honor the victims of a mass shooting that killed 11 people and injured nine others.
Her visit follows three mass shootings that took place over the course of just a few days in her home state.
Harris laid flowers at the memorial in commemoration of the victims.
"Tragically we keep saying the same things," Harris said. "Congress must act. Should they? Yes. Can they? Yes."
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She also met with families of the victims and Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who disarmed the shooter at his family-run dance hall in Alhambra.
In the wake of the shootings, government officials renewed calls for stricter gun legislation. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said that the Second amendment is becoming like a “suicide pact.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced new legislation alongside Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal that would ban assault weapons and raise the minimum purchase age for assault weapons to 21.
President Joe Biden has asked Congress to act swiftly and “deliver this assault weapons ban to my desk.” However, the bill is unlikely to pass in the Republican-majority House.
"Even as we await further details on these shootings, we know the scourge of gun violence across America requires stronger action," Biden said in a statement.
“We have more than lives lost in mass shootings, after mass shootings,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing on Tuesday. “The flags at the White House were already at half-mast in honor of those murdered in Monterey Park when we learned of the shooting in Half Moon Bay.”
After Harris’s visit, community members gathered outside for a vigil to commemorate the lives lost.
Harris arrived at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 4:30 p.m. and was greeted by officials including Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and county Sheriff Robert Luna. She then rode in a motorcade to Monterey Park, where she placed flowers at a growing memorial outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio.
Speaking to reporters outside the dance studio, she decried a spate of multiple-victim shootings in the nation since the beginning of the year and said while it's important to support victims, "we must also require that leaders in our nation who have the ability and the power and the responsibility to do something, that they act.''
"California has been courageous as a leader on the issue of smart gun- safety laws, but we also need Congress to act,'' she said, adding that the nation needs a "uniform approach'' that protects 2nd Amendment rights but includes "reasonable'' gun laws.
After spending eight minutes at the ballroom memorial, Harris left for the Langley Senior Center to meet with family members of the victims and first responders.
Investigators continued pouring over evidence as they tried to determine what led a 72-year-old man to gun down 11 people and wound nine others Saturday night in the deadliest mass shooting in Los Angeles County history.
The coroner's office on Tuesday identified all of the victims as:
-- My Nhan, 65;
-- Lilian Li, 63;
-- Xiujuan Yu, 57;
-- Muoi Ung, 67;
-- Hong Jian, 62;
-- Yu Kao, 72;
-- Chia Yau, 76;
-- Valentino Alvero, 68;
-- Wen Yu, 64;
-- Ming Ma, 72; and
-- Diana Tom, 70.