Amid rising crime, Biden targets gun violence in the US

Responding to a string of mass shootings and rising crime in the United States, President Joe Biden is taking new steps to control gun violence with a “zero-tolerance” policy for gun dealers and new funding for police and communities.

Biden in a speech at the White House on Wednesday announced new gun safety measures and will redirect some of $350bn in COVID-19 funds to address crime, according to White House officials.

The funding can be used by cities to hire law enforcement officers, pay overtime, prosecute gun traffickers and invest in technology to make law enforcement more efficient, Biden said.

“Let’s show the world and show ourselves that democracy works, and we can come together as one nation,” Biden said, calling on Congress and states to tighten gun ownership rules.

“Talk to most responsible gun owners and hunters, they’ll tell you there’s no possible justification for having a hundred rounds in a magazine,” said Biden who believes easy access to guns in the US is a source of gun violence.

“There’s too many people today buying guns that shouldn’t be able to buy a gun,” the president said.

Biden is seeking more transparency on gun data and better coordination among states. On Wednesday, he met state leaders, mayors, police officials and others to discuss ways to make communities safer.

Biden is asking Congress for more money for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency responsible for enforcing federal gun laws and regulating gun dealers, White House officials said.

The Justice Department is launching strike forces in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC, to help take down illegal gun traffickers, building on an initiative begun last month.

Biden had issued executive orders in April directing the Justice Department to crack down on self-assembled “ghost guns” that do not have serial numbers and cannot be traced to their owners.

Police officials throughout the US are struggling with increasing crime and continued tensions between police and communities as homicides in large cities have risen 30 percent and gun assaults are up by 8 percent, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice cited by the White House.

“Many of us – if not most of us – are seeing a rise in crime, while at the same time, we’re hearing calls for reform,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said of cities in remarks Tuesday at a forum on policing.

“And some of those calls are to the extreme of dismantle and defund … while all of the same time we’re sworn to protect the people,” Harrison said, according to the AP.

In addition to reforms to gun ownership regulations, Biden urged Americans to address the root causes of violent crime through community programmes ranging from early education, mental health programmes and help for former prisoners re-entering society.

Biden said his administration would work to provide funding and support to “community violence interventions, local programs that utilize trusted messengers and community leaders to work directly with people who are most likely to commit gun crimes or become victims of gun crimes”.

As Biden announces his anti-gun strategy, Congress is debating larger proposals for police reform and background check requirements for gun purchases.

There are limits to the controls the president and Congress can seek to impose on guns in the US. The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects citizens’ right to own weapons.

Biden has long political experience with implementing anti-crime and gun control measures that will help him as he navigates the US’s sharply divided present-day politics on guns and crime.

The latest rise in crime in the US, which coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, has become a focal point of criticism of Biden by Republican politicians who are quick to characterise Democrats as “soft on crime”.

“The secondary consequences of the pandemic and the proliferation of illegal guns have led to increased violence over the past year and a half,” a senior administration official told the Reuters news agency.

Amid calls in April for stricter gun controls following a series of mass shootings, the president had asked Congress to impose a nationwide ban on assault weapons but faces Republican opposition.

Biden was the lead sponsor of a 1994 crime bill that expanded federal prisons, imposed a 10-year ban on assault weapons and led to tougher prison sentences for gang-related and other crimes.

Over the years, Biden and his Democratic Party have taken criticism from the African-American community for elements of the bill that resulted in harsher sentences on drug crimes for Black Americans and Biden now supports sentencing reforms.

Meanwhile, bipartisan talks in Congress on police reforms following the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the US in 2020 may be nearing a conclusion.

It remains unclear whether Republicans and Democrats, who have been far apart on key issues, will be able to agree on a package of police reforms this year.