U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that a flood of guns is turning U.S. communities into "killing fields" and vowed to reinstate a ban on assault rifles.

In a White House ceremony to mark new gun control legislation that he signed on June 25, Biden said it was the first significant progress in 30 years, but did not go far enough to rein in U.S. gun violence.

"The past many years, across our schools, places of worship, workplaces, stores, music festivals, nightclubs, and so many other everyday places, they have turned into killing fields," said Biden, citing the recent mass shootings including those in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.

"Neighborhoods and streets have been turned into killing fields as well," he added.

Biden pledged to restore a ban on assault rifles that existed from 1994 to 2004. After it was lifted, millions of the high-powered semi-automatic war weapons were sold across the country, and used repeatedly in mass shootings.

"I'm determined to ban these weapons again.... I'm not going to stop until we do it," he said.

(With input from AFP)