President Joe Biden, while visiting the site of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, on Tuesday will announce a sweeping executive order that increases background checks of gun buyers and crackdowns on gun dealers.
Biden wants to get the US “as close as possible to universal background checks” without having to go through Congress when he lays out the plan in the city where 11 people were shot and killed on Jan. 21.
Gunman Huu Can Tran, 72, opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio as thousands took to the streets to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
The president will also take steps to ensure that gun dealers whose licenses have been revoked can no longer sell guns, and ask the Federal Trade Commission to issue a report on how gun manufacturers sell children.
It is Biden’s latest attempt to use his executive power to address gun violence without having to pass legislation.
President Joe Biden will announce a sweeping executive order on Tuesday that increases background checks of gun buyers and cracks down on gun dealers while visiting the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, on Tuesday
The executive order also directs members of Biden’s cabinet to focus on raising public awareness of red flag laws and safe gun storage and addressing the loss and theft of firearms.
He advocated a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks on gun buyers, and the revocation of gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.
The White House said the order will also hold the gun industry “responsible” by providing the public and policymakers with “more information about federally licensed gun dealers who violate the law.”
To expand background checks, Biden will direct Attorney General Merrick Garland to ensure that all arms dealers comply.
Those who do not or “willfully break” the laws will be targeted.
“This move would mean fewer guns being sold without background checks, and therefore fewer guns ending up in the hands of criminals and domestic violence,” the White House said in a statement.
Last year, he signed a bill that would make juvenile psychiatric records eligible for gun buyers under the age of 21.
It followed the murders last year of 10 shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket and 19 students at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
But Biden believes he still needs to do more to curb gun violence.
“Too many lives have been claimed by gun violence,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary. But he thinks we should do more. You will hear him calling on Congress to take action and not stop… that we must continue
to pray Brandon Tsay invitedthe 26-year-old who wrestled the semi-automatic pistol away from the Monterey Park gunman at his State of the Union address and praised the young man’s heroism.
“He saved lives. It’s time we did the same,” Biden said in his address to Congress. Ban assault weapons once and for all.
Montery Park gunman Huu Can Tran, pictured, was banned from the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he killed 11 people, and the nearby Lai Lai club where he was disarmed
The 11 victims of the horrific mass shooting in Monterey Park that occurred during Lunar New Year celebrations are identified as: My Nhan, 65, Lilian Li, 63, Xiujuan Yu, 57, Muoi Ung, 67, Hong Jian, 62, Diana Tom, 70 , Yu Kao, 72, Chia Yau, 76, Valentino Alvero, 68, Wen Yu, 64, and Ming Ma, 72,
The Star Ballroom massacre was the fifth mass murder in the country this month and the deadliest since May 24, when 21 people were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Detectives recovered three of Tran’s firearms, including a Cobray model CM11-9, pictured purchased in 1999 and identified as the murder weapon
A Hemet is a Savage Arms .308 caliber bolt action rifle found in Tran’s residence