Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that over 500 gun purchases have been stopped so far since a gun law requiring extra background checks for young people went into effect in 2022.

The bill, signed by President Joe Biden in June 2022 after passing the Congress, made background checks for buyers less than 21 years old tougher. It was billed as the most sweeping gun violence bill signed in America in decades and was passed after a number of mass shootings rocked the country.

Whenever a buyer under the age of 21 tries to purchase a gun, they have to go through checks with state and local officials, including FBI databases. These steps have blocked the sale of precisely 527 guns, as the prospective buyers failed to pass the checks.

“Time is of the essence. Lives will be saved.…Today we say, ‘More than enough. It’s time, when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential,” Biden said at the time, calling the law “a historic achievement.”

The gun restricting law had its opposition at the time, with the National Rifle Association calling it an infringement on the rights of law-abiding Americans. The group also pointed out that the law can be weaponized to restrict gun purchases that are legal.

More than a year later, the president is proud of the move, as he called Garland’s announcement an important milestone.

“Simply put: this legislation is saving lives,” he said in a statement, expressing pride in his decision to take what he calls “more executive action than any president in history to combat gun violence in America.”

“I will never stop fighting to get even more done,” he added, before going further to call for more gun restricting measures including a ban on assault weapons and background checks for all gun buyers.

Garland also called for more in his Friday remarks, saying, “This is not a time to relax our efforts. We have so much more to do.”

Garland’s announcement follows a tragic shooting in a small-town high school in Iowa on Thursday that left a sixth grader dead and five others wounded. Seventeen-year-old Dylan Butler, who eventually died of a self-inflicted wound was behind the shooting, per authorities.

According to police, Butler had a small-caliber handgun and a pump-action shotgun. It is not clear how he got the weapons but he definitely did not buy it legally, as minors under 18 are not allowed to buy guns by law.