President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced new executive actions Thursday aimed at reducing gun violence, and capped off the afternoon with a press conference touting all the work the Biden-Harris administration has done to combat gun violence, while slamming Republicans for their response to the issue.
“Guns are the number one – hard to believe – they’re the number one killer of children in America. More than any other cause – accidents – more than any other cause. It’s almost unbelievable – it’s sick,” Biden said from the White House’s East Room on Thursday. “Last year, after another school shooting, my predecessor said – like other members of Congress say – ‘Just get over it.’ I’m going to be very blunt, Secretary Vance from Ohio has called these shootings ‘facts of life.’ Who the hell do these people think they are?”
In addition to attacking Republicans, Biden also spent time during Thursday’s press conference touting the work his administration has done to reduce violent crime overall.
“A year before we came to the presidency, we saw the biggest increase in murder rates on record. Last year we saw the largest decrease in murder rates nationwide,” Biden said. “In the first half of 2024, in large cities across the country, the homicide rate dropped another 17%. Last year we also saw the lowest rates of all violent crime in more than 50 years.”
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The Thursday press conference came the same week as the one-year anniversary of Biden’s first-of-its-kind Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Biden slammed Republicans for trying to “defund.” Prior to the Thursday afternoon press conference, the White House unveiled Biden’s plan to take new executive actions aimed at combating “emerging” firearms threats, such as unserialized “ghost guns,” which can be made via a 3-D printer, and improving the manner in which schools prepare for incidents involving an active shooter.
President Joe Biden speaks during an event with Vice President Kamala Harris in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, on gun violence in the United States. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Biden said his new actions would establish a task force that will address the issue of 3-D printed “ghost guns” and machine-gun conversion devices, which are firearm components that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic one. Biden added that the task force will publish a “risk assessment” report within 90 days that will lay out “a strategy to address these emerging firearms threats.”
In addition, Biden is directing the members of his Cabinet to share a report within 110 days that outlines “resources and information for schools to improve active shooter drills, minimize this harm, create age appropriate content and communicate with parents.”
“The lack of guidance today on how to prepare students while minimizing the trauma of active shooter drills is unacceptable,” Biden argued.
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President Joe Biden greets people in the audience following an event with Vice President Kamala Harris in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, on gun violence in the United States. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Meanwhile, Vice President Harris spoke at the Thursday event and reiterated her support for a nationwide assault weapons ban. Harris also called for the implementation of universal background checks, safe storage laws, red-flag laws and more mental health counselors in schools.
Both Harris and Biden also slammed the gun lobby and gun manufacturers as well, arguing they need to be held liable in certain instances of gun violence.
“If [Republicans] got their way, criminals could traffic guns and commit crimes,” Biden said Thursday. “There’s an amendment to defund the office of gun violence prevention. Bless me Father, as we say in my church. They attack the FBI and want to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives … Folks, you can’t be pro-law enforcement and be anti-FBI and ATF.”
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Semi-automatic firearms are displayed for sale on a shelf at the McBride Guns Inc. store on Aug. 25, 2023 in Austin, Texas. ( Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Gun control critics, meanwhile, argue that Biden’s executive orders were an effort to distract from his administration’s poor record when it comes to reducing crime in major metropolitan cities.
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“This Executive Order is just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country,” said Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
“The orders are notably heavy on election-year rhetoric and light on substance,” Kozuch continued. “It’s no secret that Americans don’t feel safe under the Biden-Harris Administration, as evidenced by the record number of firearms being purchased for the defense of self and family.”