President Biden will present his first attempts to curb gun violence on Thursday, announcing a set of modest measures designed to begin renewing federal gun policy by changing the government’s definition of a firearm and responding more aggressively to urban armed violence.
On Thursday, Biden will also appoint David Chipman, a former special agent for the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to lead the agency. Chipman, a highly-cited expert on gun violence, has in recent years served as policy director for Giffords, the gun control organization founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was injured in a 2011 assassination attempt.
If confirmed, Chipman would be the agency’s first permanent director in more than six years. Given the tense nature of gun policy, the U.S. Senate has only confirmed one ATF director in the last 15 years, leaving the agency run primarily by a number of incumbents.
The president will have to formally announce the election on Thursday when he unveils other measures he is taking through executive measures to tackle armed violence. He will be joined by Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose Justice Department will be tasked with taking some of his most aggressive steps in arms policy in more than a decade.
Changes include revising federal policy around ghost weapons (handmade or self-assembled firearms that do not include serial numbers) and the use of stabilizer sticks on guns, a modification that makes the weapon a a short barrel rifle.
Proponents of gun control are pressuring the president to classify ghost weapons as traditional firearms, a move that would require anyone who bought them to undergo a federal background check. On Thursday, Biden will give the Justice Department 30 days to issue possible changes to federal rules “to help stop the proliferation” of weapons, according to the White House.
Given the nature of handmade weapons, the armed forces often cannot trace ghost weapons because serial numbers are not needed.
The Department of Justice is also given 60 days to issue a proposed rule on key stabilization. Attaching this gap to a pistol makes the firearm more stable and essentially transforms it into a short-barreled rifle subject to federal law regulation. The White House noted that the alleged shooter at the March supermarket shot in Boulder, Colorado, he appears to have used a pistol with a corbel.
The Justice Department will also be asked to draft a legislative model to enact “red flag” laws at the state level. For years, lawmakers on both sides have been pushing for federal and state legislation to temporarily ban access to firearms to people suffering from mental distress or other personal crises whether law enforcement or a judge they determine that they present a danger to themselves or to other people.
To curb the rise in homicides across the country, the Biden administration is also calling on five federal agencies to adapt more than two dozen government programs to help drive community violence intervention programs across the country. country. The White House noted that the president’s U.S. employment plan proposes spending $ 5 billion over eight years to support state and city violence intervention programs.
The new plans garnered rapid support from national arms control organizations Wednesday night.
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement that the movements “will begin addressing the epidemic of gun violence throughout the pandemic and begin fulfilling President Biden’s promise to be security president.” of the strongest weapons in history “. He later added that the decision to target ghost weapons and “treat them as the deadly weapons they will entail will save countless lives, as will the critical funding provided to groups focusing on the city’s gun violence.” “.
Organizations that advocate stricter gun laws and Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for years for the federal government to reclassify ghost weapons and force buyers to submit to antecedents.
“Ghost weapons are also firearms. And it’s time to close the gap,” said Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who has pushed for legislation to regulate ghost weapons. tweeted on wednesday.
Meanwhile, the ANR immediately withdrew the plans. The organization has tweeted Wednesday night that the actions were “extreme” and he wrote “the ANR is ready to fight.”
“These actions could require law-abiding citizens to hand over legal goods and push states to extend arms confiscation orders,” the NRA posted in a tweet.
Growing in popularity, but difficult to trace broadly, given the lack of a serial number, ghost weapons have been used in recent years in multiple shooting-related crimes.
The Biden administration has been reluctant to publicly discuss arms control amid its initial focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic crisis. During his first formal press conference last month, the president noted that he would not rush to address the issue despite recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado and that his administration would continue to focus primarily on pushing legislative responses to the pandemic and to his trillion dollars. infrastructure plan.
His decision has allowed critics to point out how Mr Biden was unable to deliver on a remarkable campaign promise. Since he appeared in Nevada in February 2020, Mr. Biden promised to send legislation to Congress on his first day in office that would repeal liability protection for weapons manufactures and close gaps in the federal gun background check system.
For weeks, administration aides have said plans were still underway, a stance that did not change after the latest shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado.
Corey Rangel, Nancy Cordes, Kristin Brown and Fin Gómez contributed to this report.