Yahoo Movies Biden campaigned on gun safety. What has he done to reduce gun violence?
President Biden entered office last year promising to enact the biggest set of gun-control measures in a generation, what he called a necessary response to an epidemic of shootings across the country.
He’s had only limited success so far.
On the campaign trail, Biden pledged to work with Congress to expand background checks on all gun sales and ban outright the sale of assault rifles.
But thanks almost entirely to staunch Republican opposition in Congress, Biden’s agenda to curb gun violence and reduce access to firearms has been mostly confined to a series of executive actions. Those actions can make a tangible difference, gun-control advocates argue, but aren’t as far reaching as measures that must pass through Congress before becoming law.
Despite being the minority party on Capitol Hill, Republicans can still block most bills in Congress because of a Senate rule known as the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break. Effectively, that means Democrats would need to win support from at least 10 Republican senators to pass gun-control legislation.
Biden himself channeled his frustration about the lack of action in remarks delivered Tuesday after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
“As a nation, we have to ask, ‘When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?’” Biden said. “When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”
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Here’s some of what Biden has done to try and combat gun violence and reduce access to firearms since taking office:
Cracked down on “ghost guns” The Biden administration took executive action last year mandating that so-called “ghost guns,” those weapons manufactured in private that lack a serial number, be subject to the same rules and regulations of all guns. The weapons, government officials have said, had proliferated in involvement with gun-related crimes.
Drafted model “red flag” laws The Department of Justice last year issued a template for state legislation designed to temporarily prevent someone from accessing a firearm, if they are deemed by family members or law enforcement to be a threat to themselves or others.
Funding for more cops Legislation Biden did sign into law last year, the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, included $350 billion in state and local aid — money officials at the Treasury Department outlined could be used specifically to hire more police officers to combat rising crime rates. The administration also touts increases in funding in the current fiscal year’s budget for agencies like the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Safe storage The Department of Veterans Affairs last year began an advertising campaign encouraging people to lock up their guns when not in use, part of a broader effort from the administration to encourage gun owners to safely store their weapons.
Nominate an ATF director Biden upset allies last year when he withdrew the nomination of David Chipman to run the ATF, after the proposed leader failed to win the support of some key lawmakers in the Senate. But the president last month nominated a new potential leader of the agency, former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach, who is seeking to become only the second head of the bureau ever to be confirmed by the Senate.
