Why Biden's Executive Actions On Gun Control Are Not Enough

By Rebecca Shabad - NBC News

WASHINGTON - The man who shot and killed 10 people in Boulder, Colorado, last month used a stabilizer for his semi-automatic pistol to increase its accuracy.

One of the executive actions announced by President Joe Biden to curb gun violence will toughen access to these accessories.

The move was one of several executive actions Biden announced last week in the wake of the shootings in Boulder and the Atlanta area last month.

Experts on gun violence and activists pushing for stricter gun restrictions say Biden's unilateral actions could lead to a reduction in gun violence, but that congressional action would be needed. to impose substantial changes, a perspective that diffuses in the face of the division between Democrats and Republicans.

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Gun violence has exploded in recent years.

Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence in the U.S., revealed that more than 19,000 people died in gun homicides last year, the most in more than two decades. , almost 25% more than in 2019.

"Ghost weapons"

Among the executive actions announced, Biden ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to propose a rule to curb the proliferation of so-called "ghost weapons", which can be built at home from kits that do not include serial numbers, making them untraceable.

Experts say the guns are becoming more popular with militia groups, such as members of the boogaloo movement, a far-right anti-government movement in the United States, and street gangs, such as the Latin Kings, as the pieces of these guns can be purchased without a federal background check.

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Authorities in Los Angeles, Baltimore and Washington DC have more frequently discovered homemade firearms in crime.

In 2019, a teenager who shot five students and killed two at a high school in Santa Clarita, California, used a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol assembled from parts.

In March last year, a San Diego man was arrested for boarding a London-bound flight with a replica of a Glock 19 ghost pistol at the bottom of his handbag loaded with nearly a dozen 9mm cartridges.

And in November, a convicted Baltimore felon was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for 10 armed robberies at banks and liquor stores, two of which used a "ghost pistol."

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There is not enough data on the use of these weapons as they cannot be traced.

Gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety claims that until police departments can track them down, criminal prosecutions are the best indicator of their proliferation.

In a review of 114 federal cases over the past decade, the group revealed that more than 2,500 "ghost weapons" were linked to criminal activity.

Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), law enforcement agencies recovered about 10,000 ghost weapons in 2019.

Everytown found that the number of states where online gun parts sellers are located increased from 12 in 2014 to 26 last year.

During the press conference where Biden announced the measures, Attorney General Merrick Garland indicated that the administration's rule would likely classify DIY gun kits as firearms so they could be regulated by federal law, which According to experts, it could go a long way towards curbing its use.

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Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention and Policy of Gun Violence, said that if the authorities "do not act quickly" the rates of gun violence will rise, both urban violence and violence. as well as domestic terrorism.

I think it is a very significant and important move that will have an impact.

It will improve our public safety, "he said.

Red flag laws

Biden also directed the Justice Department to develop legislation that states can use as a model for "red flag" laws, allowing police or family members to petition state courts to temporarily remove firearms from those. who present a danger to themselves or others.

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Nineteen states and Washington DC have passed such laws, according to Everytown;

14 did so after the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school that left 17 dead.

Some experts have said that such a law in Florida could have helped prevent the shooting because the FBI had been warned about the gunman's increasingly alarming statements but never acted on it.

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And some research has shown that laws can reduce gun violence.

A 2018 study revealed that suicides in Connecticut fell by approximately 1.6% after the state enacted its first red flag law in the nation in 1999 and then by 13.7% in the aftermath of the Virginia mass shooting. Tech in 2007, when the law was tightened.

The same study found that the Indiana law, which was passed in 2005, led to a 7.5% decrease in firearm-related suicides in the decade after its implementation.

"Ghost Weapons" at Police Department Headquarters in San Francisco, California, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019.AP Photo / Haven Daley

Available evidence suggests that red flag laws "may have a positive impact on suicide prevention," the Federal School Safety Commission noted in a 2018 report. "We don't know if they have an impact on gun violence in general. "they added.

Some Republicans, including Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both of Florida, have voiced support for the red flag laws.

They recently reintroduced a bill with Senators Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and Angus King, independent of Maine, that would make federal funds available to states to implement such laws, but it is unclear whether the measure, which has challenged the opposition from some gun rights advocates has some chance of moving forward in Congress.

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The National Rifle Association has also made clear that it opposes Biden's actions, tweeting that they "could require law-abiding citizens to hand over legal property and pressure states to expand gun confiscation orders. ", and saying that the NRA" is ready to fight. "

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Community intervention programs

One movement that could have a big effect, according to some experts, is the prioritization by the Biden Administration of community violence prevention and intervention programs.

The executive action directs five federal agencies to make changes to 26 programs that support and fund those programs.

One such initiative is the Safe Neighborhoods Project, which the Justice Department launched in 2001 and reinforced in 2017. An annual report published in October found that the initiative "successfully reduced violent crime by an average of 4 to 20%, with reductions up to 42% in certain locations. "

Biden's effort to "get federal agencies to provide more money for violence intervention programs looks promising," said Jens Ludwig, an economist at the University of Chicago.

"It is clear that there is a need for additional violence prevention efforts that do not depend solely on the criminal justice system

, and resources have historically been a significant barrier to achieving this," he added.

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Biden's infrastructure plan would allocate $ 5 billion to those programs.

Another of his executive actions urges the Justice Department to issue a report on firearms trafficking, which Ludwig said could better illuminate the patterns of weapons crossing state lines.

Garland recalled that the last such study was conducted more than 20 years ago.

Inaction of Congress

While Biden's actions could reduce gun violence, experts say it won't drastically decrease unless Congress closes gaps in existing law, such as the "gun display loophole," which exempts private sellers. of conducting federally required buyer background checks.

Or the "Charleston loophole," which allows a firearms sale to take place if a background check is not completed within three days, which is how the gunman in the mass shooting of 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he got his gun.

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"There's still a long way to go,"

recalled Louis Klarevas, a global affairs research professor at Columbia University's Teachers College who studies gun violence and has written about mass shootings.

"What will really make a difference will be whether he can get legislation enacted with the help of Congress. What he did today was strictly limited to what he can do from the White House in the executive branch," he explained.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said he is speaking with colleagues from both parties about expanding background checks, and the House of Representatives passed a couple of measures this year to go in that direction.

But as in years past, the prospect of passing such legislation appears slim, requiring Democrats in the evenly split Senate to maintain the support of all 50 party members and win the backing of 10 Republicans.

House Democrats are also grappling with an extremely narrow margin to move the legislation forward.

The last time Congress came close to passing major gun legislation was in 2013, when the Senate came within six votes of passing a bill that would have required background checks on all commercial gun sales.

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"Ending gun violence cannot be addressed by executive action alone," reiterated Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, last week.

"That is why Congress has to act on gun control. It

has been 25 years since our national leaders passed a federal law of this type

. That is 25 years of survivors mourning their loved ones," he said.