President Joe Biden joked about his age as he spoke at the National Safer Communities Summit in West Hartford, Connecticut, focusing on reducing gun violence.
“I know many people here who have been impacted by gun violence, lost someone they loved, fought so hard for so many years,” Mr Biden said.
“A lot of you are tired. They're tired. I get it. Try being 110 and doing it again,” he added to laughter from the audience.
“All kidding aside, a lot of people are frustrated,” he continued. “My mother – God love her – all five-foot-one Catherine Jean Finnegan would look at me, she said, ‘Joey. Never bow. Never bend. Never yield. Never kneel. We never will on this issue. Never, never, never, never, never.”
Mr Biden travelled to Connecticut to praise the passing of the broadest gun legislation since the 1990s and the ban on assault weapons that lasted for a decade. The president spoke on the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Mr Biden’s speech at the University of Hartford’s Lincoln Theater was attended by more than 600 people, a venue chosen before Mr Biden’s attendance was confirmed, according to the Hartford Courant.
Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has been one of the most prominent voices on the issue of combatting gun violence ever since the Newtown shooting in his state in December 2012 when 20 students between the ages of six and seven and six adult staff members were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“As a kid, I came out of a different movement, the civil rights movement,” Mr Biden told the crowd at the Lincoln Theater.
“Some in this room have turned your pain into purpose,” he added. “You’re the reason why I’m so optimistic about the future … You’re changing our culture. You’re changing our politics.”
Former Arizona Representative Gabby Giffords, who suffered a brain injury after an assassination attempt in 2011, also attended the event.
“Gabby has more courage than most people I’ve ever known … Gabby, I love you,” Mr Biden said.
Her husband, ex-astronaut Mark Kelly, now represents Arizona in the US Senate.
Fifteen Senate Republicans and 14 in the House voted for the Safer Communities Act last year.
“A year ago, the conventional wisdom is we would never get any Republican support. Period,” Mr Biden said at the summit on Friday. “It’s an important first step … Whether you’re Democrats or Republicans, we all want them to be safe … We want our children to have freedom to learn instead of ducking and covering in a classroom.”
Firearms became the number one killer of children in the US in 2020, according to The Courant, beating cancer and car accidents.
