All major television channels in the United States interrupted their scheduled programs to broadcast Biden's speech from the White House at half past seven on Thursday night.

The speech followed several bloody mass shootings in the United States in a short time.

Last week, 19 students and two teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

On May 14, ten people were shot dead at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, by an 18-year-old with suspected racist motives.

As recently as Wednesday, a patient shot dead two doctors, a receptionist and another patient at a hospital clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

- After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing was done.

This time it must not be so.

This time, we actually have to do something, Joe Biden pleaded in his speech, where he listed the bloodiest mass shootings in the United States in the last 20 years or so.

Approved in Congress

Biden recently traveled to both Uvalde and Buffalo to meet with the victims' relatives and show their participation.

There he was met by strict demands to tighten the country's generous gun laws.

Now the president is calling for a ban on particularly powerful firearms and high-capacity magazines.

At the very least, he wants the age limit for arms purchases to be raised from 18 to 21 and for more thorough checks to be made on potential customers.

In addition, he likes to see stricter rules on how weapons should be stored and that weapon manufacturers should be able to be prosecuted for crimes committed with their products.

But stricter gun laws must be approved in both houses of Congress - and Republicans have so far been reluctant to shake up the American right to bear arms.

In the Democratic-led House of Representatives, a proposal for increased background checks has already been voted through and a proposal to ban heavier handguns is next in line.

Nothing that these proposals, however, seem to get through the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans have 50 seats each.

- The fact that a majority of the Republican senators do not even want these proposals to be debated or put to the vote, I think is unscrupulous, says Biden.

A small group of senators from both parties have gathered this week to find measures that everyone can accept - but if they manage to agree on any proposals, it will not be the kind of major reforms that the Democrats and Joe Biden hope for.

20 new mass shootings

The Republicans have strong support among gun owners and in his speech, Biden therefore addressed the ordinary Americans who value their right to own and carry guns.

- I respect the culture and tradition, but the right to bear arms is not unrestricted.

- This is not about restricting anyone's rights.

It is about protecting children and families.

It is about protecting our freedom to go to school, the grocery store or the church without being shot and killed.

Since the school shooting in Uvalde on May 24, another 20 mass shootings with at least four killed or injured have occurred in the United States, according to the president.

Injuries from firearms are also the most common cause of death among children in the United States, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control, CDC, Biden states.

In the last 20 years, more school-age children have been killed by firearms than on-duty police and soldiers combined.

Biden concluded by appealing to the American people to act together through which politicians they choose to vote for.

- It's probably now.