Washington – President Biden unveiled 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 aggressive to urban armed violence.
“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic and it is an international shame,” Biden said in his statements announcing the actions. He described the high rates of gun violence as “imperfection of the character of our nation.”
He backed down from arguments that such executive actions would infringe the right to bear arms. 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.
“Nothing I’m about to recommend doesn’t affect the Second Amendment in any way,” the president said. Biden said he wants ghost gun games to be “treated as firearms” and to have key parts labeled with serial numbers. He also said he wanted guns modified to be more dangerous to be subject to national firearms law, which means owners would have to register and pay a fee for the modifications.
The president urged the Senate to approve it bills approved in the House to expand the background. He also called on Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which would close the so-called “boyfriend gap” to prevent couples and harassers convicted of domestic violence or abuse from buying and holding firearms.
“Whether Congress acts or not, I will use all the resources at my disposal as President of the United States to protect Americans from armed violence,” Biden said.
The president also called on Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons. He helped maintain the ban through Congress as a senator in 1994, but expired in 2004. However, most Republicans oppose the measures mentioned by the president, which means they are unlikely to pass in the Senate. . Most legislation requires 60 votes to advance in the Senate and Democrats have a 50-seat majority.
But Mr. Biden insists there are “common ground” between Republicans and Democrats and has noted that gun control measures are popularly overwhelming among the American people.
“I know it’s painful and frustrating that we haven’t advanced what we expected,” Biden said. “No matter how long it takes, we’ll get them approved. We won’t give up.”
Biden on Thursday appointed David Chipman, a former special agent of the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), to head the agency. Chipman, a widely 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 formally announced the election on Thursday as he unveiled other steps he is taking through executive action to tackle gun violence. He was 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.
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 gave 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 was also asked to draft model legislation 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.
“I have no illusions about the difficulty of resolving the problems of gun violence and I know that the Justice Department alone cannot solve the problem,” Garland said in brief comments. “But the department has work to do and we intend to do it.”
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.” “.
Kris Brown, president of the arms control organization Brady, said in a statement that Mr. Biden’s actions “will have an immediate impact.”
“President Biden’s actions are historic and will have an immediate impact. They are tangible and powerful policies that will save lives,” Brown said.
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.
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who sponsored background legislation that was not passed in Congress in 2013, said in a statement that he and his staff were “reviewing” Mr. Biden’s actions.
“I appreciate President Biden’s express willingness to work with both Republicans and Democrats to achieve this goal. If done in a way that respects the rights of law-abiding citizens, I think there is an opportunity to strengthen our background check system so that we are better able to keep guns away from those who have no legal rights to it, ”Toomey said.
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.