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After two mass shootings in less than a week, President Biden responded to the latest killings in Boulder, Colorado from the White House before departing to Ohio Tuesday afternoon.

He said the Senate should “immediately pass” two House bills to close loopholes in firearm background checks. “This is not and should not be a partisan issue,” Biden said. “This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives. We have to act.”

Ten people, including police officer Eric Talley, 51, were killed at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado on Monday. Authorities say 21-year-old, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of Arvada, Colorado was responsible for the massacre. He was arrested and charged with 10 counts of murder.

This incident coming days after another 21-year-old, Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, GA, took the lives of eight people at three separate massage spas in Atlanta. Six of Long’s victims were Asian-American women who worked at the facilities. A heinous act because Long was reportedly having a “bad day.”

President Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were “devastated” by the Boulder shootings.

“While the flag was still flying half-staff for the (Atlanta) tragedy, another American city has been scarred by gun violence and the resulting trauma,” the president said at the White House.

In 1994, then-Senator Biden along with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), secured the passage of a 10-year ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. It was a landmark piece of legislation championed by Biden as one of his key career accomplishments.

After the shootings at Sand Hook Elementary in 2012, President Obama tasked then-Vice President Biden with developing both legislative proposals and executive actions to make US communities safer.

“As a result of this effort, the Obama-Biden Administration took more than two dozen actions, including narrowing the so-called “gun show loophole,” increasing the number of records in the background check system, and expanding funding for mental health services.”

Almost 40,000 people die as a result of firearm injuries every year in the United States, and many more are wounded, according to official statistics.