Biden says 'ghost gun' crackdown should be 'just the start' on gun control: 'None of this absolves Congress'

President Biden has had incremental success at implementing gun control through executive action, rolling out a rule last year to regulate pistol-stablizing braces, directing his Justice Department to target gun traffickers, and announcing a new crackdown on "ghost guns" Monday.

While the president touted his administration’s actions, he also said that "this should be just the start" and called on Congress to pass laws on gun control, a politically contentious issue that has been deadlocked in the legislature for the past decade.

"We need Congress to pass universal background checks," Biden said in the Rose Garden on Monday. "And I know it’s controversial, but I got it done once: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines."

Biden was referring to the 1994 federal assault weapons ban that Congress passed when he was a senator and expired in 2004. A study conducted that year for the Department of Justice found that the "ban’s impact on gun violence is likely to be small at best, and perhaps too small for reliable measurement."