Joe Biden sets up White House office on US gun violence prevention
- The office, overseen by Vice-President Kamala Harris, will help implement existing firearm safety laws while working with states on the issue
- The decision is a win for gun violence protection groups that were happy with Biden’s record pushing for reforms but wanted to see the White House do more
US President Joe Biden is establishing a new office of gun violence prevention, to be overseen by Vice-President Kamala Harris, and is bringing in leading advocates to help run it, officials said on Thursday.
The new office will help implement existing gun safety laws while working with states on the issue, the officials told reporters on a conference call.
“I’ll continue to urge Congress to take common sense actions that the majority of Americans support like enacting universal background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said in a statement.
“But in the absence of that sorely-needed action, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention along with the rest of my administration will continue to do everything it can to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart.”
Establishing the office is a win for gun violence protection groups that were happy with Biden’s record pushing for reforms but wanted to see the White House do more.
Lawmakers last year – when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress – passed the first major gun-safety legislation in three decades. Yet further action is highly unlikely, given Republicans now control the House.
Earlier this year, Biden issued an executive order seeking to close loopholes that allow some purchasers to avoid background checks when buying firearms online or at gun shows.
Still, mass shootings have persisted at an undiminished pace. So far in 2023, there have been more than 500 such shootings in the US as of Tuesday, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
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Kris Brown, president of Brady, one of the oldest gun-violence prevention groups, stressed in a statement that “executive action alone isn’t enough to end gun violence”, and urged Congress “to pass common-sense gun laws”.
Natalie Fall, the executive director of March for Our Lives, a group that was formed by students following a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, said that “if our children and young people really are precious to us, then we need to be throwing everything at the gun violence epidemic.”
Fall pointed out that the group sent a letter to the White House just last week requesting an office dedicated to preventing gun violence.
Peter Ambler, executive director of gun-control group Giffords, also said that such an office “has been a top priority of ours for years”.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
