As Congress stalls, Biden makes gun safety a priority with new office

By James On Sep 22, 2023

President Joe Biden is creating the first-ever federal gun violence prevention agency, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The agency will coordinate efforts across the federal government and provide assistance and guidance to states struggling with rising gun violence as it takes the lead in implementing bipartisan gun legislation signed into law last year. Mr. Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the office.

Ms. Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, has years of experience on the issue and was the logical fit to lead the effort, White House officials said. Adding the new office to her portfolio puts Ms. Harris in charge of some of the most prominent domestic issues – including voting rights and abortion, as well as the increase in migration to the US. But they are also among the most charged, most difficult issues. to resolve, and difficult for Democrats to make progress in Congress.

Mr. Biden tentatively plans to announce the new effort on Friday with an event at the White House, said the people, who had direct knowledge of the plans and who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss to speak in public.

The office meets a key demand from gun safety activists who have banded together as a coalition to support Mr. Biden for president in 2024, and is an effort by the White House to keep the issue front and center as the president pushes for a ban. on so-called “assault weapons” and urges Congress to take action.

“The creation of an Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the White House will mark a turning point in how our federal government responds to an epidemic that is ravaging every state and every community in America,” said Kris Brown, president of the gun safety group Brady. , who has been running for the office since 2020.

“Tackling this epidemic will require a whole-of-government approach, and this new office would ensure the executive branch is focused and coordinated on proven solutions that will save lives.”

Greg Jackson, the executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, and Rob Wilcox of Everytown for Gun Safety are expected to serve in roles in the newly created office, which White House Staff Secretary Stef Feldman will oversee, the people said. The White House plans were first reported by The Washington Post. One of the first directives will be to ensure that a federal gun safety law passed last year is fully implemented. The bipartisan law, the first in decades, was passed after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

The 2022 law tightened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, sought to keep firearms away from perpetrators of domestic violence and aimed to help states enact red flag laws that make it easier to take guns away from people considered dangerous .

Enhanced FBI background checks have blocked hundreds of transactions from attempted buyers under the age of 21. Prosecutions against unlicensed gun sellers have increased and new penalties for gun trafficking have been imposed in more than 100 cases across the country. Prosecutions for those selling firearms without a license have doubled.

But more needs to be done, White House officials said. The agency will also try to find ways to stop rising violence across the country without any additional action from Congress.

“Few people care more about the work of gun violence prevention than President Biden,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who, along with Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. has drafted legislation that would create such laws. an office. “Establishing a White House office dedicated to this fight will save thousands of lives and strengthen the federal government’s implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”

Firearms are the leading cause of death among children in the US, and so far this year, 220 children under the age of 11 have been killed by firearms and 1,049 children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been killed. As of 2020, the U.S. firearm death rate among youth under the age of 19 is 5.6 per 100,000. The next comparable country is Canada, with 0.08 deaths per 100,000.

But Republican support for gun restrictions is waning, a year after Congress passed the most comprehensive gun control legislation in decades with bipartisan support, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Most Democrats, 92%, want gun laws to be stronger, consistent with their views in a UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll conducted in July 2022. But Republican desire for more comprehensive legislation has fallen to 32% from 49% last summer and independent Support has also fallen slightly from 72% to 61%.

But despite the political divisions, both parties believe it is important to reduce the mass shootings plaguing the country, the poll shows. There have been at least 35 mass killings in the U.S. so far in 2023, killing at least 171 people, not including shooters, according to a database maintained by the AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.