Biden gives Kamala ANOTHER job: President taps vice president to lead first-ever federal gun violence prevention agency
- Harris also oversees voting rights and increased migration
- As a former prosecutor, she has a history of working on issues
- Gun violence is expected to be a major issue in the 2024 campaign
President Joe Biden has tapped Kamala Harris to lead his gun violence prevention office, giving his vice president yet another task for her crowded portfolio.
Biden will formally announce his decision Friday afternoon during a ceremony in the Rose Garden. Harris will oversee the office. Stefanie Feldman, a longtime Biden aide who has worked on gun policy for more than a decade, will serve as director.
Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, has years of experience on this issue.
But the vice president now has some of the country’s most prominent policy issues on her plate — including voting rights, abortion and the increase in migration across the border into the United States.
They are also the most politically charged issues, which are difficult to resolve and can be a minefield to navigate.
“The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will play a critical role in carrying out President Biden’s and my efforts to reduce gun violence as much as possible, while also engaging congressional, state and local leaders, and advocates and encourage us to come together to build on the meaningful progress we have made to save lives,” the vice president said in a statement.
Harris has met with communities that have suffered from gun violence. She has taken on a more combative role within the administration as the White House prepares for the 2024 elections.
In August, she gave a speech on gun violence in Chicago, where she said, “There are people who are just trying to sell a false choice…that you’re either for the Second Amendment or you want it. take away everyone’s weapons.’
Advocacy groups have been pressing Biden to create such an office to help coordinate efforts across the government to reduce gun violence.
President Biden “hears young people across the country demanding a world where they don’t have to live in fear of gun violence,” Feldman said of the creation of the new office.
Gun violence is also likely to be a major part of the 2024 presidential campaign and important to some of the voting groups Biden is targeting: suburban women, voters of color and younger voters.
The president has used his executive power to combat gun violence as legislative efforts have stalled on Capitol Hill.
In 2022, Congress passed major gun legislation, although it did not include all the things Biden had pushed for. It expanded background checks and provided millions of dollars for mental health care and school safety initiatives.
Biden has advocated reinstating the national assault weapons ban, but with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and Democrats in control of the Senate, passing legislation on Capitol Hill is a difficult prospect.
“I will continue to urge Congress to take common-sense measures that the majority of Americans support, such as enacting universal background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said in a statement.
“But in the absence of that much-needed action, the Office for the Prevention of Gun Violence, along with the rest of my administration, will continue to do everything we can to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing apart our families, our communities and our society. country apart,” he said.
President Joe Biden has put Vice President Harris in charge on a number of politically charged issues, including gun violence, voting rights and migration
Democrats largely support stricter gun laws, citing deaths from mass shootings and school shootings.
Republicans, who have strong support from the National Rifle Association, largely oppose such laws, citing the Second Amendment.
But polls show that Americans are increasingly concerned about the number of shootings in the country. The US has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world.
Six in 10 American adults say gun violence is a very big problem in the country today, with 62% of Americans saying they expect levels of gun violence to increase over the next five years, according to the Pew Research Center.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 504 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2023.