Joe Biden’s Plan To End Gun Violence

Joe Biden has a long track record of tackling gun violence in the USA. That includes helping bring the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act into power, to establish the background check system. It also includes the creation of 10 year bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines in 1994. However, guns still pose a serious danger to the public. Here is how his administration will tackle the issue when they are voted into office.

Removing Deadly Weapons From The Streets

The Biden administration has a checklist of actions to take, in order to remove guns from the streets. These include:

Regulating possession of existing assault weapons: Currently you will see that possession of machine guns, silencers and short barrelled rifles requires individuals to undergo background checks and register their weapons with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Biden will look to legislate the possession of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act in the same way.

Reduce weapon stockpiling: Under the Biden administration, the plan is to reduce weapons stockpiling by restricting the amount of firearms one individual can buy. By restricting the purchases to one per month the aim is to vastly reduce stockpiling by individuals.

Close all weapons sale and background check loopholes: Currently, there are several loopholes in the firearm purchasing system, which enable more guns to make their way onto the street. Under the Biden administration commerce the aim is to close these loopholes so the amount of guns can be reduced.

Addressing The Combination Of Guns And Domestic Violence

The statistics on domestic violence show that when guns are involved, the outcomes are vastly more deadly. For example, if there is a gun nearby in a domestic violence situation, a woman is five times more likely to be killed. As well as this, in half of mass shootings, the shooter will kill at least one family member or former intimate partner during the incident.

Because of this, the Biden administration will aim to reduce the amount of guns that can make their way into the hands of abusers, in order to save the lives of those involved.  This involves bringing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 to vote, which will prohibit all individuals who are convicted of assault, battery, or stalking  from buying or possessing firearms.

Holding Gun Owners Accountable

Anyone who owns a gun needs to be practising top gun safety, to ensure that everyone around them is kept safe. As such, the Biden administration aims to make gun owners accountable for safety, and how their guns are stored and used.

For example, Biden supports legislation that will hold adults criminally and sly liable for allowing miners access to firearms. This should be the case whether the mind actually gains access to the firearm or not. He also supports legislation to require gun owners to properly and safely store their weapons.

Right now, the technology to create smart guns is available. That includes the technology to require a fingerprint match before a gun can be fired, ensuring only the owner can fire the gun. Currently, the NRA is blocking the development of such technology and the sale of these guns, but the Biden administration aims to accelerate their development and sale.

Enforcing Gun Laws

It’s important to reassess our current gun laws, and work to bring them off the streets. However, law enforcement needs to be empowered to enforce these gun laws and keep citizens safe. That’s why the Biden administration aims to enact several plans to allow this to happen.

This includes prioritizing the prosecution of straw purchases. These are people who purchase a firearm on behalf of someone who cannot pass the background check. There have been several research papers written by a professional service that showed the real scale of a problem. This loophole will be closed, and making straw purchases will become a federal crime.

Right now, if someone failed the background check when attempting to purchase a gun, local law enforcements are never informed. That’s a serious lapse in public safety, so the Biden administration aims to have law enforcement notified every time this happens. That will allow them to follow up with this attempt, and ensure that the individual does not gain access to firearms fire any other means.

That will also be legislation requiring firearm owners to report if their weapon is ever lost or stolen. With this legislation in place, it should be easier to keep track of weapons, and reduce violence.

Finally, the Biden administration aims to stop ‘ghost guns’. These are guns that are assembled by an individual, either by buying them as a kit to a reassemble, or 3D printing a working firearm. To stop these from making their way into the hands of people aiming to commit violence, there will be legislation to require that gun kits or 3D printing codes must pass a federal background check.

Supporting Survivors Of Gun Violence

The Biden administration understands that the results of gun violence are long-lasting. For example, the fear of school shootings is having a real impact on the mental health of our current students. Those that have suffered gun violence commerce such as an intimate partner violence, commonly suffered depression, post traumatic stress and other mental health issues. These issues need to be addressed.

The administration aims to make all federal programs more trauma informed, so they can more properly serve the needs of those who use them. In Biden’s first 100 days in office, he also aims to invest significant funds into expanding and improving federal government support for trauma.

Biden also aims to create a network of trauma care centers, with a focus on domestic and sexual violence.  This greatly expands the scope of care for domestic violence victims, allowing them to properly process their trauma and begin to heal.

This is a very compressed look at how the Biden administration aims to combat gun violence in the USA. By both managing the sale and use of guns, as well as the supporting the victims of gun violence, the hope is to vastly reduce the amount of guns making their way into the hands of those looking to commit violence.