GIFFORDS applauds President Biden’s executive orders to address gun violence
Announcement comes on one year anniversary of the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention
WASHINGTON — Today, GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, applauded the new gun safety executive orders from President Biden. The executive orders announced today include a taskforce to investigate emerging gun technology like conversion devices and 3D printed guns, a boosted investment in community violence intervention programs and practices, and more money for states to implement red flag laws — among over a dozen agency directives. Today’s actions include a range of GIFFORDS recommendations and priorities.
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords will join President Biden for the announcement later today.
“In 2013 I stood with then-Vice President Biden in the Rose Garden when the Manchin-Toomey background check bill failed the Senate. To join him again in the Rose Garden today to announce these new executive actions shows how far we’ve come and how much progress has been made,” said former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. “Machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed guns represent a major and growing threat to American communities. These new approaches and investments, paired with additional support for community violence intervention programs and red flag laws, will save lives.”
“By expanding background checks, passing the first federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years with the Bipartisan Safer Communities, and creating the federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention that is a whole-of-government effort to address this crisis, President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership has saved lives. Today’s announcement only builds on their legacy of putting public safety first,” Giffords added.
BACKGROUND:
The Biden-Harris Executive Order establishing an Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force closely mirrors a pair of GIFFORDS proposals. A memo presented to the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention earlier this year urging the administration to “develop and implement an interagency strategy to prevent and intercept trade and trafficking of auto sears and other machine gun conversion devices.”
In November 2020, GIFFORDS, in partnership with the Center for American Progress, advised the incoming Biden-Harris administration to modernize the ATF’s approach to gun trafficking to account for 3D-printed and ghost guns, including a reporting “the number and percentage of firearms trafficking investigations that involved ghost guns, and the average number of ghost guns (versus firearms that are not ghost guns) involved in each case involving ghost guns”, among other findings.
Today’s actions reflect other longtime GIFFORDS priorities and recommendations, including:
- Guidance and investment to strengthen America’s schools;
- Efforts to promote safe storage;
- Implementing Emergency Risk Protection Orders (Red Flag laws) in states;
- Collaboration to strengthen states’ background checks;
- Community Violence Intervention (CVI) funding;
- Actions to ensure Medicaid reimbursement for CVI;
- Addressing the trauma of gun violence through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and ReCAST programs;
- New reporting on ghost guns and gun trafficking; and
- Improved and expanded data collection and reporting on shootings and gunshot injuries.
MEDIA REQUESTS
Our experts can speak to the full spectrum of gun violence prevention issues. Have a question? Email us at media@giffords.org.
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