Biden heckled on WH lawn by Parkland shooting victim’s dad

President Biden was heckled on the White House lawn Monday by gun control advocate Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was killed in a 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

“Sit down! You’ll hear what I have to say,” Biden said as Oliver shouted over him during a celebration of bipartisan gun policy legislation that Biden signed last month.

Oliver’s remarks weren’t clearly audible on pooled video feeds, but Biden pushed back and defended his record on gun control.

“We have one. Let me finish my comments,” Biden said to Oliver, before quickly adding, “Let him talk, let him talk.”

The president went on, “Make no mistake about it, this legislation is real progress, but more has to be done.”

Oliver was photographed being escorted out of the South Lawn event.

The bereaved father tweeted Monday morning that he was upset about plans to celebrate the new law, which includes enhanced background checks for would-be gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21.

“The word CELEBRATION has no space in a society that saw 19 kids massacred just a month ago,” Oliver wrote. “‘Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.’ Not me, not Joaquin.”

In a CNN interview before the event, Oliver said: “It’s like we’re going to a party, to a wedding today … I really wish there were more in this package of bills.”

In his remarks Monday, Biden repeated his earlier call for Congress to ban “assault weapons.” However, that’s unlikely to happen due to lack of support, particularly in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation. There has been bipartisan support, however, for raising the legal age limit to purchase semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, was committed by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who used a legally purchased AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to murder 17 people.

The new gun policy bill passed after a pair of mass shootings in May. On May 24, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos used a legally purchased AR-15-style rifle to murder 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Just 10 days earlier, 18-year-old Payton Gendron allegedly murdered 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store with an AR-15-style rifle that he also legally purchased.

The ceremony took place one week after another mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., killed seven people and injured dozens more.

The new gun policy law authorized $750 million for state-run crisis intervention programs such as “red flag” laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people suspected of ill intentions.

The legislation also bans people from possessing guns if they are convicted of violence against a romantic partner. A prior federal restriction was less comprehensive.

It’s rare for a president to be heckled during a speech — especially on White House grounds. When Biden was vice president, he patted then-President Barack Obama on the back in 2015 as Obama memorably scolded a heckler opposed to the deportation of LGBT illegal immigrants. 

“Shame on you,” Obama told the transgender immigration activist at a Pride Month event. “Listen, you’re in my house … It’s not respectful.”