LAS VEGAS — Hours before addressing activists at a national gun safety forum, Joe Biden released an outline that he says will “end our gun violence epidemic.”
The former vice president and top-tier 2020 Democratic White House hopeful’s ideas are familiar from his time as President Barack Obama’s understudy and his 36 years as a senator from Delaware. Biden would, among other things, strip liability protection from gun manufacturers if their products are used in mass shootings. The former vice president also proposes banning “the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines.”
Biden is further calling on Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit an individual from buying a weapon if he or she “has been convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime, or received an enhanced sentence for a misdemeanor because of hate or bias in its commission,” as well as passing universal background checks and ending the so-called gun show loophole.
Under his plan, the online purchasing of firearms and ammunition would also be illegal.
Notably, Biden also proposes a national gun registry of sorts. His plan calls for regulating the possession of “existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act,” similarly to what owners of machine guns and automatic weapons must do if they wish to keep their weapons.
“This will give individuals who now possess assault weapons or high-capacity magazines two options: sell the weapons to the government, or register them under the National Firearms Act,” the plan reads.
Biden’s plan differs from some of his Democratic rivals who have called for mandatory “buybacks” for owners of certain assault-style rifles.
Biden also calls for a limit on one gun purchase per month in order to minimize the “stockpiling of weapons” and pledges to “put America on the path to ensuring that 100% of firearms sold in America are smart guns,” which has been a staple of his campaign stump speech.
Outside of directing targeting firearms, Biden’s plan includes establishing “a new Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse” in order to “study rampant online sexual harassment, stalking, and threats, including revenge porn and deepfakes — and the connection between this harassment, mass shootings, extremism and violence against women.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Biden will address a presidential forum hosted by the gun control group March for Our Lives, which was founded in the wake of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead and 17 injured.
[Previous coverage: Joe Biden wants a national gun buy back program to get ‘assault weapons off the streets’]
