President Joe Biden speaks about gun violence prevention in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., Thursday as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Thursday, 08 April 2021 12:15 PM

President Joe Biden, in his first gun control measures since taking office, announced a half-dozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.”

“It is actually a public health crisis,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.

Greeting the families of gun violence victims and activists, he assured them: “We’re absolutely determined to make change.”

Biden’s Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge he made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” to address gun violence, after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue. His announcement came the same day as yet another shooting, this one in South Carolina, where five people were killed.

READ MORE HERE: Biden Making New Moves on Guns, Including Naming ATF Boss | Newsmax.com