White House reportedly does not rule out Executive Orders to enact gun control

Brittany Shepard, White House correspondent for Yahoo! News, said that the press secretary made these remarks aboard Air Force One. Biden is traveling the country this week as part of his Help is Here tour.

Shepard reported that Psaki said that the White House will be considering "many levers," which would include executive actions along with legislation to curb American's rights to purchase and own guns.

Biden has been a proponent of what he's called "common sense" gun reforms. These notably restrict legal gun ownership but do little to impact the problem of illegal guns.

"We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed, it was the law for the longest time and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again."

Biden said that there was still not enough information on the shooter's motives or his identity, but that he "doesn't need to wait another hour" before taking action. He noted that closing "the Charleston loophole" would be one of the best tools "we have right now to prevent gun violence."

The Charleston loophole is the provision that, in the event a background check does not immediately return a yet or no verdict, a gun seller must wait three days for a further FBI check before allowing that customer to purchase a gun. If after three days the background check is still inconclusive, the seller is permitted to sell the firearm.

Biden has issued more than 35 executive orders, plus substantive proclamations, ten presidential memoranda, and letters that effectively reversed Trump-era orders.

On February 11, Psaki addressed gun violence from the press room at the White House, saying "Last year, we saw a historic spike in homicides across America. And we know gun violence in our cities disproportionately affects black and brown individuals. Last month, we also saw a near record increase in the number of gun sales.

"We look forward to working with gun violence survivors and advocates and sharing more in the weeks and months ahead about our efforts to make our communities safer."