President Joe Biden took a step forward this Tuesday on gun regulation, one of the issues most polarizing Americans. The President has signed an executive order tightening controls on firearms sales. The initiative aims to make it more difficult for guns and guns to get into the hands of people with mental health problems, criminal records or domestic violence. And also make it easier for police officers and judges to remove guns from people who pose a potential threat to their community. Biden made the announcement in Monterey Park, an eastern Los Angeles suburb, where a shooting at a dance studio left 11 dead and 9 injured hours before the Chinese New Year last January.
Once again, reality calls for Biden to act. “This executive order accelerates and intensifies efforts to save lives faster,” the president said at an event at a community club in the San Gabriel Valley. At the event, the President spent several minutes commemorating the victims of the massacre, one of the state’s worst. Present at the ceremony was Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who disarmed the same assailant who was attempting to carry out another massacre at another dance venue in the Alhambra just hours after the one in Monterey Park. Tsay was invited by Biden to address the State of the Union. “In an instant, he found the courage to act and fight someone with a high-powered rifle. Brandon saved lives and protected a community.”
In his initiative, the President is asking the Justice Department to tighten surveillance to ensure gun shops conduct the background checks required by federal legislation. “Specifically, the President is asking the Attorney General to bring the United States as close as possible to a universal background check without requiring special legislation,” the White House said Tuesday. “It’s common sense to check someone for a criminal record or domestic violence before they’re sold a firearm,” said Biden of Los Angeles.
The move also fills a gap left by a rule Biden himself signed last year. The new executive order says anyone who sells at least five firearms in a year to make a profit will be considered part of the industry. This was one of the main demands made by the organizations for stronger controls. In this way, sellers at gun shows or advertisers for online gun shops may be subject to regulation and background checks.
Biden believes background checks will lead to fewer guns on the streets. The procedure also helps to reveal the volume of the market in the country. In 2021, 18.5 million background operations were performed, which gives an idea of the weapons sold at that time. In 2022, it was 16.4 million, leading the industry to believe demand has slowed from all-time highs fueled by the pandemic and nationwide Black Lives Matter mobilizations.
The initiative announced by Biden also targets “red flags”. It is a reference to legislation in force in 19 states in addition to Washington D.C. that allows police departments, family members, friends, co-workers, employers and teachers to petition before a judge for an order temporarily removing guns and ammunition from the hands of people that they pose a danger to their environment and to themselves. A study by the University of California, one of the states with the strictest gun controls, shows that these laws primarily benefit potential victims of sexist violence. Domestic problems cause most firearm incidents in the United States.
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“These laws will only be effective if the public knows when and how to use warning labels,” the executive says. That’s why Biden has asked the Cabinet to work with law enforcement, doctors, teachers and community leaders to spread the word about the regulations in the states where they are in effect: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois , Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the nation’s capital.
The President chose a community club in the San Gabriel Valley to deliver his speech. MARIO TAMA (Getty Images via AFP)
The government also intends to step up its offensive against the arms deals. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Guns, along with the Justice Department, will release a report on companies penalized for failing to follow state regulations on gun sales. “We must insist that enough is enough and that we will not allow the interests of gun manufacturers to trump the safety of our children and the nation,” Biden said in the text of his executive order.
Last year, Biden signed legislation backed by Democrats and Republicans. The issue often divides both political camps ideologically, but a series of bloody shootings, including the second-biggest school shooting and an attack on a supermarket frequented by blacks, gave Washington the breathing space it needed to reach a minimum agreement. The legislative package, the most important piece of legislation passed in three decades, made it harder for anyone under the age of 21 to buy guns, who must spend three days being investigated and brought before law enforcement before they can complete their purchase. The first federal law punishing interstate arms trafficking was also passed. The package also provided $250 million to be invested in community campaigns focused on the prevention and treatment of mental illness.
Biden himself has acknowledged that these efforts are not enough. The head of the executive branch has asked the legislature to authorize stronger controls and ban the sale of high-powered rifles, the weapon favored by perpetrators of mass shootings to cause the greatest possible number of deaths. Biden recalled this afternoon that as a legislator he was involved in the veto against this type of weapon, which was in effect from 1994 to 2004. “Homicides have been declining over those ten years, but our Republican friends have phased it out and now homicides have tripled. Let’s do the homework. Let’s ban high-powered rifles again,” the President said. So far in 2023, the country has already recorded 110 episodes that have claimed 8,400 lives, according to the census conducted by the Archives of Armed Violence. However, the majority of these deaths are suicides (4,800).
The Democratic President’s move has been welcomed by organizations fighting for more regulation of the gun market in the United States. “The actions that Biden is prioritizing have proven effective and have the support of a large majority of Americans, and they strike a balance between our rights and our obligation to accountability,” said Peter Ambler, the director of the Giffords organization.
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