President Joe Biden repeated his plea for an assault weapon ban on Monday, as a protester disrupted his ceremony commemorating the passage of a new bipartisan gun law.
The July 4th shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, which killed seven people and injured 46, overshadowed the measure, which was intended to prevent gun violence.
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was slain in the Parkland school tragedy, overshadowed Biden’s presentation. Oliver, who climbed a 150-foot construction tower near to the White House in February to advocate for stricter gun laws, urged Biden to go further.
Oliver stood up during the president’s remarks to heckle him as Biden was bragging about passing the most consequential guns legislation in nearly three decades.
‘Sit down – you’ll hear what I have to say,’ Biden told Oliver. ‘Let me finish my comments.’
As White House staff stepped in to talk to Oliver, Biden then said ‘Let him talk; let him talk.’ But staff escorted Oliver out of the event.
On June 25, the president ceremonially signed the gun bill into law, accompanied by first wife Jill Biden.
However, he celebrated its passage on Monday with 80 lawmakers who voted in favor of it, including Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, and nearly 1,000 other people on the South Lawn, including survivors and family members of victims of mass shootings in Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tucson, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Santa Fe, Uvalde, Buffalo, and Highland Park.
J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering were also in attendance.
During his remarks, Biden renewed his call for assault weapons to be banned.
‘Assault weapons need to be banned,’ he said. ‘I’m determined to ban these weapons again.’
Biden was a leader in the passage of the assualt weapons ban when he was in the Senate. It expired in 2004.
‘I know public policy can seem remote, technical, and distant from our everyday lives. But because of your work, your advocacy, your courage, lives will be saved today and tomorrow because of this,’ he said.
‘We will not save every life from the epidemic of gun violence,’ he added, ‘But if this law had been in place years ago, even this last year, lives would have been saved.’ 
Ahead of th event, Biden took to the White House social media accounts to ask Americans to share their stories of gun violence.
‘I received over 2,500 responses in 24 hours,’ he said.
In his speech, Biden called for additional legislation that would bring about safe storage laws requiring personal liability for not locking up a gun and more background checks.
‘I have four shotguns, two are mine and two are my deceased son’s. They’re locked up,’ Biden said.
‘Guns are the number one killer of children in the United States, more than car accidents, more than cancer,’ the president said, his voice growing louder as he called for more to be done.
The bill, which won bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, toughens background checks for younger gun buyers, increases background check requirements, and increases penalties for gun traffickers.
It also makes it illegal for love partners convicted of domestic abuse who are not married to their victims to obtain firearms, effectively eliminating the so-called “boyfriend loophole.”
Convicted abusers who are married, live with, or have children with their victims are already prohibited from possessing firearms.
In addition, $750 million will be allocated to the 19 states that have’red flag’ laws that make it easier to temporarily confiscate firearms from dangerous persons, as well as other states with violence prevention programs.
States with ‘red flag’ laws that receive the funds would have to have legal processes for the gun owner to fight the firearm’s removal.
It will disburse money to states and communities to improve school safety and mental health initiatives. 
However, the bill does not prohibit assault weapons, which Biden has previously advocated for.
When he signed the bill into law, Biden admitted that it didn’t include everything he wanted, but it did include “steps I’ve long called for that are going to save lives.”
However, the president has stated that there is still work to be done.
‘I recently signed into law the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in over 30 years, which includes provisions that will save lives,’ stated Biden following the July 4th shooting. ‘But there is a lot more work to be done, and I’m not going to give up battling the gun violence epidemic.’
The new law came together in the wake of a spat of mass shootings including one at a grocery store in Buffalo where 10 black people were killed and one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 17 children and two teachers died.