President Biden on Thursday will announce a half-dozen executive actions focused on curbing gun violence, including regulations on home-assembled firearms and the nomination of a gun-control advocate to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The initiatives are the first major actions that Biden will take as president on guns, a top Democratic priority that has only become more urgent after recent mass shootings in Boulder, Colo., and the Atlanta area.
“We know that Americans are dying from gun violence every single day in this country,” a senior administration official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday. “That’s why we are pursuing an agenda that will address not only mass shootings, but also community violence disproportionately affecting Black and Brown Americans, domestic violence and suicide by firearm.” Continue reading.
This past Wednesday, in a night full of poignant testimony in the House Public Safety Committee, the Minnesota House took one further step in joining 20 other states (plus D.C.) in passing expanded background checks that would cover all gun sales. Rep. Dave Pinto, a prosecutor in his day job, took the lead on shepherding HF 8 through committee. HF 8 takes the long overdue step in closing major loopholes in Minnesota’s current background check system that allows dangerous individuals the opportunity to obtain guns by way of online or private sales. It’s not just common sense legislation that’s the morally right thing to pass, because it’s worked in other states where it’s been implemented in reducing firearm suicide and homicide rates, it’s also extremely popular among Minnesotans. How popular? 89 percent support in a 2018 poll, popular.