President
Joe Biden
is expected to sign a new
executive order
Tuesday aimed at cracking down on
gun violence
in the country.
Biden is in
California
for the
AUKUS
summit and plans to travel to Monterey Bay, the site of a deadly
mass shooting
over the Lunar New Year, for the signing ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
BIDEN MISFIRE: MAJORITY TURNS AGAINST ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ BAN
White House
officials told reporters the order itself seeks to increase the total number of national background checks, promote proper gun safety and storage among owners, and help local law enforcement agencies make use of resources included in the bipartisan
gun control
law Biden signed into law in 2022.
“Combined with his previous executive actions and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, [the order] indisputably makes President Biden unmatched by any of his predecessors when it comes to a record of taking action to reduce gun violence,” one official said. “Now President Biden would be the first to say that even after today, there will be more to do to further reduce gun violence and save lives. He will continue to lead that charge and call on Congress to do the same.”
The order also directs the president’s Cabinet to stand up a process to support communities reeling from mass shootings and orders Attorney General
Merrick Garland
to improve communication with federally licensed gun dealers and applicants regarding required background checks.
Furthermore, the order looks to improve the sharing of ballistics data between federal, state, and local law enforcement data.
In addition to signing the executive order, Biden will deliver remarks and visit with community members. Biden invited Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old man who disarmed the Monterey Bay mass shooter, to his second
State of the Union
address in February.
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As the president mulls a
2024 reelection announcement,
he has routinely ramped up calls for Congress to legislate universal background checks and reinstitute 1994’s ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Meanwhile, he has sought to portray himself as tough on crime, culminating in his stated intent to sign Republican legislation rolling back a number of sentencing reforms enacted by the Council of the District of Columbia. The move drew strong condemnation from progressives.
