Biden marks fifth anniversary of Las Vegas shooting: ‘May we resolve to turn our heartbreak into action’

by Julia Shapero - 10/01/22 5:22 PM ET

FILE – Personal belongings and debris litters the Route 91 Harvest festival grounds across the street from the Mandalay Bay resort and casino after an Oct. 1, mass shooting in Las Vegas, on Oct. 3, 2017. Five years after a gunman killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more at a country music festival in Las Vegas in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the massacre is now part of a horrifying increase in the number of mass slayings with more than 20 victims, according to a database of mass killings maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

President Biden called for additional gun control legislation on Saturday, as he marked the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

“Jill and I mourn with all those who lost a piece of their soul on October 1st, 2017,” Biden said in a press release. “May God bless those taken from us and comfort the loved ones of the fallen. And may we resolve to turn our heartbreak into action.”

The shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas remains the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, with 60 people killed and hundreds more injured.

“From the Nevada desert, we heard the same cry that we’ve heard in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, Charleston, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo, and too many neighborhoods to count: Do something,” Biden added. “And, my Administration has been working tirelessly to heed that call.”

In June, Biden signed into law the country’s first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years. The law came just weeks after a spate of deadly mass shootings, including a shooting at a Uvalde elementary school that left 19 children dead.

Biden said on Saturday that he is “determined” to push for more gun control legislation, including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“We’ve done it before, and we can do it again,” he said. “The memories of the victims demand nothing less.”