President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at increasing the number of background checks for gun purchases, promoting better and safer storage of firearms, and ensuring that America’s law enforcement agencies take advantage of to the max a bipartisan gun control law signed into law last summer.
The Democratic president plans to delve into his latest efforts to curb gun violence during a speech from Monterey Park, California. In January, a gunman stormed a dance hall in this community near Los Angeles and shot 20 people, killing 11, after a Lunar New Year celebration.
Biden’s rhetoric has only gotten louder around guns: He calls for banning so-called assault weapons routinely in his speeches, and Democrats didn’t push such an outspoken platform against guns even during the Trump administration. Obama, when Biden was vice president. But Biden has been emboldened by the midterms after his usual talk about gun control failed to result in massive losses, and he is expected to continue to push for strong changes as he moves toward a 2024 race, his aides say. .
Biden invited Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who seized the gunman’s semi-automatic pistol in Monterey Park, to his State of the Union address and praised the young man’s heroism.
“He saved lives. It’s time we do the same, too,” Biden said in his address to Congress. “Ban assault weapons once and for all.”
But his power cannot go beyond bipartisan legislation passed by Congress last summer, the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades. He followed the murder of 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school.
“Too many lives have been claimed by gun violence,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “But he believes we have to do more. He will hear you ask Congress to take action and not stop…that we must continue.”
In the new executive order, Biden directs his cabinet to work on a plan to better structure government to support communities experiencing gun violence. The plan requires Attorney General Merrick Garland to tighten the rules for federally licensed gun dealers so they know they must run background checks as part of the licensing process.
[Con información de The Associatted Press]
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