Biden administration unveils gun reform package News
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Biden administration unveils gun reform package

The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled the first six measures it will take to address gun violence. The actions, which come in response on the heels of recent shootings in Atlanta and Colorado, are executive orders that President Joe Biden hopes will supplement upcoming legislation.

The first measure asks the Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue a proposed rule to stop the proliferation of “ghost guns” within 30 days. Ghost guns refer to guns that can be quickly assembled from kits. These kits give persons otherwise excluded from gun ownership the ability to use a gun. It is difficult to trace the users of such guns given that they do not have commercial serial numbers.

The second measure is a direct response to the shooting in Boulder, Colorado. It asks the DOJ to propose a rule to explain when a stabilizing brace essentially converts a pistol into a short-barreled rifle. It is believed that the Boulder shooter used a pistol with a brace that converted the pistol into a short-barreled rifle, thus making it more precise while remaining concealable, under the definition set forth in the National Firearms Act. The DOJ will have 60 days to propose this rule.

The third measure asks the DOJ to create model “red flag” legislation within 60 days. Biden hopes the DOJ’s model legislation will enable states that wish to pass red flag laws to do so based on the model. Red flag legislation aims to prevent people in crisis from accessing firearms “if they present a danger to themselves or others.” Further, Biden urged Congress and the states to pass red flag legislation immediately.

The fourth measure uses money from the American Jobs Plan to invest in community violence interventions. The investment comes to $5 billion over eight years. It aims to connect individuals to employment opportunities given that connections have been established between employment opportunities and lower violence in communities. Further, Biden is asking the Department of Health and Human Services to “educate states” on how to divert money from Medicaid to community violence intervention programs in hospitals. He also directed five agencies to divert funding toward community violence intervention programs.

The fifth and sixth measures focus on administrative changes that Biden hopes will help curb gun violence. First, he ordered the DOJ to publish a yearly report on firearms trafficking, which will help track “ghost guns” and better understand the illegal gun trade. Secondly, he nominated David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Chipman is an experienced ATF Agent and, if confirmed, would be the first confirmed head of the agency since 2015.

In his remarks from the White House Rose Garden, Biden said that “[g]un violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.” He emphasized that the measures taken today were all first steps to solving a larger problem and that none of the measures violate the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

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