Connecticut advocates are pushing Congress to enact stricter gun control as President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions for stricter laws Thursday.

Biden announced six executive actions on gun control, including one that would treat kits for building so-called ghost guns as firearms themselves.

Purchase of guns would also require a background check. Gun rights advocates say new rules only punish rule-followers - not criminals.

The founders of Sandy Hook Promise are no stranger to the pain of losing a family member to gun violence. Co-founder Nicole Hockley says the president's executive orders are a good start.

Hockley lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. She's been fighting for change ever since.

Biden also called on the Senate to close background check loopholes and get to work on a fresh assault weapons ban.

Hockley says the executive branch can only get so much done on its own.

"These steps took courage. Congress now has to match that courage," she says.

Among Biden's other executive orders - he directed the Department of Justice to draft a model extreme risk law as an example for states.

Connecticut has had a similar law since 1999.