US VP Kamala Harris tells mayors: Time for unity, tough gun laws

US Vice President Kamala Harris told the nation's mayors that it is "time for unity" and fighting for tougher gun laws.

"Let us not allow those who are motivated by hate to separate us or to make us feel fear. Let us not allow that," said Harris.

"We all have so much more in common than what separates us. That if we are to maximize our strength as a nation, we must find a way to commit to come together. With a principle that includes believing that a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us."

Harris comments came during a speech to the 90th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Reno, Nevada on Friday.

This comes a day after President Joe Biden delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into “killing fields."

If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their “outrage” to turn it into a central issue in November’s midterm elections.

He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines - and said if Congress won't embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21.

The shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and at hospital in Oklahoma, came close on the heels of the May 14 assault in Buffalo, New York, where a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as “racially motivated violent extremism.”

Democrats are hoping Biden's remarks encourage the bipartisan Senate talks and build pressure on the Republicans to strike an agreement.