The president of the United States, Joe Biden, ordered today by decree to increase background checks to buy firearms and demanded that Congress “responsibility” to accompany him in his efforts to curb armed violence in the country, which so far this year 2023 already recorded 110 episodes.
“Every few days in the United States, we mourn a new shooting; We cannot accept these facts as an enduring reality in the life” of the country, said the president in a statement with which the White House informed the signing of the decree.
“Instead, we must insist that we have had enough and will no longer allow the interests of arms manufacturers to take precedence over the safety of our children and the Nation,” he added.
What are you looking to promote?
The decree also seeks to promote better and safer storage of firearms and ensure security agencies make the most of a Gun Control Law enacted last year, an official told reporters.
Later, in a speech in Monterey Park, California, where a gunman killed 11 people last January during a Lunar New Year celebration in a dance hall, he urged Congress to take “responsibility” for enforcing measures that restrict the use of semi-automatic rifles.
“Ban assault weapons, do it now, enough is enough, do something, do something big,” he asked when speaking in that emblematic place, to the applause of some two hundred attendees, according to the AFP news agency.
In addition, the head of the White House met there with relatives of the dead and wounded, and with first responders who treated victims of that shooting.
“I am here on behalf of the American people to mourn with you, to pray with you, to let you know that you are loved and that you are not alone; I am determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he told them.
Last month, Biden invited Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who seized the Monterey Park shooter’s semi-automatic pistol, to his State of the Union address to both Houses of Congress and praised the young man’s heroism.
slaughter and draft
Congress passed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades last June, with the support of lawmakers from both the Democratic Party and the opposition Republican Party.
The law was enacted after several shootings in public places, including 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
“Too many lives have been lost to gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for Biden, said yesterday.
“But he (Biden) believes that we have to do more; you will hear him ask Congress to take action and not stop… that we must continue, ”he anticipated.
An official who asked not to be named told US media that Biden’s executive order will direct his cabinet to work on a plan to better structure government to support communities experiencing gun violence.
The rule asks Attorney General and Attorney General Merrick Garland to strengthen the rules for federally licensed gun dealers so they know they must conduct background checks as part of their licensed activity.
It also calls for better ballistic data reporting for a clearinghouse that allows federal, state and local law enforcement to match shell casings to weapons.
The law passed last year, known as the Safer Communities Act, is seen by gun control advocates as a good start, but it doesn’t go far enough.
After the law was signed, there were 11 more mass shootings, according to a database of mass murders dating back to 2006 maintained by USA Today and Northeastern University.