Biden acts on gun violence
Calls on Congress to take up additional measure
President Joe Biden announced a half-dozen executive actions on Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.” His orders tighten regulations on homemade and hard-to-trace “ghost guns” and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda he laid out on the campaign trail. The announcement on Thursday underscores the limitations of Biden’s execu- tive powers to act on guns.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden, in his first gun control measures since taking office, announced a halfdozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment.”
“The idea that we have so many people dying every single day from gun violence in America is a blemish on our character as a nation,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.
He announced he is tightening regulations for buyers of “ghost guns” – homemade firearms that usually are assembled from parts and often lack serial numbers used to trace them. Also, a proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces like the one used in Boulder, Colorado, in a shooting last month that left 10 dead.
Biden’s Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge the president made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue.
But t announcement underscores the limitations of Biden’s executive power. His orders provide more resources for gun-violence prevention but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda he laid out on the campaign trail.
Biden again urged Congress to act, calling on the Senate to take up Housepassed measures closing background check loopholes. He also said Congress should pass the Violence Against Women Act, eliminate legal exemptions for gun manufacturers and ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
“This is not a partisan issue among the American people,” Biden insisted.
While Biden asserted that he’s “willing to work with anyone to get it done,” gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.
Biden was joined by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland said he was “under no illusions about how hard it is to solve the problem of gun violence” and emphasized a need for a “collective effort to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and save lives.”
The Justice Department cannot solve the problem by itself, he said, but “there is work for the department to do, and we intend to do it.”
Biden is also nominating David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
ATF is being run by acting director Regina Lombardo. Chipman is certain to win praise from gun control advocates. During his time with Giffords, he pushed for greater regulation and enforcement on ghost guns, changes to the background check system and measures to reduce the trafficking of illegal firearms.