In the wake of a devastating shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left nineteen children and two teachers dead, President Joe Biden on Monday appeared to push for a blanket ban on assault weapons.

“It makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds,” Biden, who visited Uvalde on Sunday to meet with affected families and first responders, told reporters outside the White House, per NBC News.

“The idea of these high-caliber weapons—there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of, about self-protection, hunting and I guess—and, remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute. You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn't go out and purchase a lot of weaponry,” he continued.

Throughout the past week, Biden called on Congress multiple times to quickly pass gun reform legislation. He said that he believes gun reforms can be passed that would have a “significant impact” on the amount of violence with “no negative impact on the Second Amendment.” He also pointed to the federal assault rifle ban that expired in 2004 for helping to reduce gun-related deaths.

“I know what happened when we had rational action before. … Not many are saying it anymore, but there was a while there where people were saying that, you know, the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots, and what we have to do is, we have to be able to take on the government when they're wrong. Well, to do that you need an F-15, you know? You need an Abrams tank,” he said.

“So, it's just, as I say, I think things have gotten so bad that everybody’s getting more rational about it. At least, that’s my hope and prayer,” he added.

The president continued by saying that he believed that “there’s a realization on the part of rational Republicans—and I think Sen. [Mitch] McConnell (R-KY) is a rational Republican; I think [Sen. John] Cornyn (R-TX) is as well. I think there’s a recognition in their part that they—we can’t continue like this. We can’t do this.”

Last week, Senate Minority Leader McConnell asked Cornyn to begin conversations with Democrats regarding bipartisan gun-control legislation, as reported by CNN.

“I have encouraged him to talk with Sen. [Chris] Murphy (D-CT) and Sen. [Kyrsten] Sinema (D-AZ) and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that is directly related to the problem,” McConnell told the news outlet.

“I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution,” he continued.

Cornyn added that “there’s a whole list of things that we can consider, but I think particularly mental health, access to mental health treatment is high on that list. I think we need to be open to whatever, wherever the evidence leads us.”

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Finance and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters.