Biden says nation must unite to end scourge of guns
NEW YORK — Running through a grim tally of recent gun deaths, President Biden pledged to New Yorkers and the nation on Thursday that the federal government would step up its fight against gun violence by working more closely with police and communities to stop the surging bloodshed.
“It’s enough. Enough is enough,” Biden told police, law enforcement officials and lawmakers gathered at the city’s police headquarters. “We can do something about this.”
But Biden’s crime fighting strategy relies heavily on buy-in from state and local officials as he suggests ways to spend federal dollars and expands on initiatives already under way. The modest initiatives demonstrate the limits to what he can do when there is no appetite in Congress to pass gun legislation.
Biden came to New York a day after the funeral for the second of two New York City cops shot and killed during a domestic violence call on Jan. 21.
The visit gave the president a chance to push back against Republicans who claim he’s soft on crime, and to distance himself from those in the left flank of his Democratic Party who want to shift funding away from police departments to social spending programs.
“The answer is not to defund the police,” Biden said. “It is to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors and know the community.”
Biden ticked through how 316 people are shot every day and 106 killed, including 26 children who died in gun violence so far this year.
In New York last month, an 11-month-old girl was wounded by a stray bullet and a teenage fast-food cashier was shot to death. Thirty-two officers have been shot in the line of duty so far this year nationwide, seven of them killed.
Biden is navigating complex politics: He’s working to find ways to combat crime while also pushing for greater accountability after high-profile killings of Black people by police.
“The answer is not to abandon our streets,” Biden said. “The answer is to come together, policing communities, building trust and making us all safer.”
Guns are at the center of the debate as the nation grapples with homicides that spiked nationally in 2020, the final year of the Trump administration.
Even before the spike, 75% of all homicides in the U.S. were due to firearm injuries and guns were responsible for 91% of youth homicides, according to a January report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on gun violence and suicides over 201819.