by Guy Page
Pres. Joe Biden will introduce new gun control measures today in Monterey Park, California, according to a statement issued today, March 14 on Whitehouse.gov.
Billed as “new actions to reduce gun violence and make our communities safer,” the new restrictions would:
- Make a goal of increasing the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales, moving the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation. Specifically, he will direct the Attorney General to expand the definition of dealers required to conduct background checks, and prohibit gun dealers with revoked licenses from ever dealing guns again.
- Increase the effective use of “red flag” laws by promoting Extreme Risk Orders and safe storage on the local level.
- Accelerate law enforcement efforts to identify and apprehend the shooters menacing our communities.
- Strengthen efforts to hold the gun industry accountable for ‘lost’ guns. Citing an over 250% increase in the number of firearms reported as lost or stolen during shipment between federally licensed firearms dealers, from roughly 1,700 in 2018 to more than 6,100 in 2022, Biden wants the ATF to crack down on this high rate of weapons gone missing. Also, Biden would “publicly release, to the fullest extent permissible by law, ATF records from the inspection of firearms dealers cited for violation of federal firearm laws.”
- Encourage the Federal Trade Commission to issue a public report analyzing how gun manufacturers market firearms to minors.
Read the entire statement at Whitehouse.gov.
Biden’s announcement drew this comment from William Moore, Firearms Policy Analyst for the VT Traditions Coalition:
“This President is seeking to use the Administrative State powers to prosecute and investigate lawful gun owners and dealers as a last resort. They hold no hope of Congressional action as they begin their “campaign 2024″ sideshows. The NYSRPA v. Bruens Decision is rapidly closing in and shutting down their most favored infringements like Wait Periods, gun registration as well as magazine and gun bans. In other areas these administrative and surveillance approaches are being investigated and rejected by Congress. The SCOTUS is also likely to radically shrink the BATFE ability to abuse their powers of regulation and infringements against lawful gun owners and states that promote the same.”