Biden announces gun-control actions following spate of mass shootings in U.S.

Biden’s Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge he made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” to address gun violence, after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue.

His announcement came after yet another shooting, this one in South Carolina on Wednesday, where five people were killed.

But the announcement underscores the limitations of Biden’s executive power to act on guns. They include moves to tighten regulations on homemade guns and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention, but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda Biden laid out on the campaign trail.

Indeed, the White House has repeatedly emphasized the need for legislative action to tackle the issue.

But while the House passed a background-check bill last month, gun-control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.

Stricter rules, more community funding

Biden is tightening regulations for buyers of “ghost guns” — homemade firearms usually are assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine, and often lack serial numbers used to trace them.

It’s legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop and there is no federal requirement for a background check. The goal is to “help stop the proliferation of these firearms,” according to the White House.

The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule aimed at reining in ghost guns within 30 days, though details weren’t immediately issued.

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A second proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces, like the one used in a mass shooting at a Boulder, Colo., grocery store last month that left 10 dead. The rule will designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barrelled rifles, which require a federal licence to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 US tax.

The department also is publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own “red flag” laws that allow people to petition a court to let police confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

The justice department also will begin to provide more data on firearms trafficking, starting with a new comprehensive report on the issue. The administration says that hasn’t been done in more than two decades.

The Biden administration will also make investments in community violence intervention programs, which are aimed at reducing gun violence in urban communities, across five federal agencies.

Officials said the executive actions were “initial steps” completed during Garland’s first weeks on the job and more may be coming.

Former agent to head ATF

Biden is also nominating David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun-control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ATF is currently run by an acting director, Regina Lombardo. Gun-control advocates have emphasized the significance of this position in enforcing gun laws, and Chipman is certain to win praise from this group.

During his time as a senior policy adviser with Giffords, he spent considerable effort pushing for greater regulation and enforcement on ghost guns, changes to the background check system and measures to reduce the trafficking of illegal firearms.

Chipman spent 25 years as an agent at the ATF, where he worked on stopping a trafficking ring that sent illegal firearms from Virginia to New York, and served on the ATF’s SWAT team. Chipman is also a gun owner.

He is an explosives expert and was among the team involved in investigating the Oklahoma City bombing and the first World Trade Center bombing. He also was involved in investigating a series of church bombings in Alabama in the 1990s. He retired from the ATF in 2012.

The White House fact sheet said Chipman has worked “to advance common-sense gun safety laws.”

Advocates applaud moves

During his campaign, Biden promised to prioritize new gun-control measures as president, including enacting universal background check legislation, and banning online sales of firearms and the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

But gun-control advocates have said that while they were heartened by signs from the White House that they took the issue seriously, they’ve been disappointed by the lack of early action.

With the announcement of the new measures, however, advocates lauded Biden’s first moves to combat gun violence.

“Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic, and begin to make good on President Biden’s promise to be the strongest gun-safety president in history,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Feinblatt in particular praised the move to regulate ghost guns, which he said “will undoubtedly save countless lives,” and lauded Chipman as an “invaluable point person” in the fight against illegal gun trafficking.

He also said the group is looking forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration on further gun-control measures, but it’s unclear what next moves the White House, or lawmakers on Capitol Hill, will be able to take.

Biden himself expressed uncertainty late last month when asked if he had the political capital to pass new gun-control proposals, telling reporters, “I haven’t done any counting yet.”