WASHINGTON — President Biden will speak Thursday night on the recent spate of mass shootings and his plans to press Congress “to pass commonsense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day,” the White House announced.

The 7:30 p.m. speech follows a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, last week, as well as one Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office.

Mr. Biden said earlier this week that the Second Amendment was never an “absolute” and that he thought “rational” Republicans in Congress would work with Democrats to pass restrictions that could limit high-powered weapons like the ones used in Uvalde.

Lawmakers from both parties have been negotiating small steps on gun limits since shortly after the Uvalde shooting, and the House is planning to move forward with a vote on an assault weapons ban that likely wouldn’t pass the Senate.