US President Joe Biden has called for Congress to act quickly to ban assault weapons, as California reeled from two deadly mass shootings in less than forty eight hours.

A group of senators on Monday reintroduced a federal Assault Weapons Ban and legislation that would raise the minimum purchase age for assault weapons to twenty one.

A suspected gunman was in custody yesterday over the killing of seven people in a rural community in northern California, just two days after a mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration near Los Angeles.

A law banning assault rifles expired in two thousand and four and Congress has repeatedly failed to renew it even as the country endures repeated mass shootings.

Many Republicans oppose a ban citing the constitutional right to gun ownership.