Manuel Oliver, the father of a victim of a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., interrupted President Joe Biden on Friday during a White House speech marking the passage of the first major gun legislation in more than a decade.
“You have to do more,” Oliver could be heard shouting from the audience during Biden’s remarks celebrating the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provides funding for crisis intervention and mandates due process procedures for states with red flag laws.
Manuel, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin Oliver in 2018, called on the president to open a White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and appoint a gun czar.
“You have to open an office in the White House. Name a director,” he can be heard saying. Much of his shouting was inaudible at the outdoor event hosted on the White House’s South Lawn.
The president responded to Oliver’s demands, responding that “we have one” in response to the call for a federal office dedicated to gun violence. But the president acknowledged that more needs to be done to prevent mass shootings and said “let him talk” before Oliver was escorted out by White House security.
“This legislation is real progress but more has to be done. The provision of this new legislation is going to save lives and it’s proof that today’s politics we can come together on a bipartisan basis and get important things done. Even on an issue as tough as guns.”
Oliver has been on the front lines of gun-control activism since losing his son in 2018, and was among other gun control activists who criticized the bill, arguing it does not go far enough to prevent mass shootings.
“It’s been a while that I’ve been calling out that using the words ‘celebration,’ getting together, it’s like we’re going to a party, to a wedding today, you know, we all received invitations. And meanwhile, you can see these mothers in Uvalde that just saw how their kids were massacred inside a school,” Oliver said in an interview with CNN on Monday.
“I really wish there was more in this package of bills and I will do everything whatever I can to get more in this package of bills. … We are celebrating and getting together in the White House. There’s no space for that word.”
