Biden Signs New Gun Safety Executive Order

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Facts

  • US Pres. Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order intended to increase background checks for gun buyers, promote safer storage of firearms, and encourage law enforcement agencies to enforce last summer’s bipartisan gun control law to the best of their abilities.1
  • Biden signed the order in Monterey Park, Calif. — the site of a mass shooting in January.2
  • Although the order doesn’t require universal background checks, which would have to be passed by Congress, it requests Attorney General Merrick Garland “clarify” who’s classified as an arms dealer and ensure that those ignorant of or purposely circumventing background check laws come into compliance.3
  • The order also urges the president’s cabinet to promote the use of so-called “red flag” laws, which exist in 19 states and Washington, DC, to identify high-risk individuals who own firearms.4
  • The president also wants the Federal Trade Commission to study how manufacturers are marketing guns — especially when it comes to marketing to minors.5
  • In a Reuters/Ipsos poll last year in the US, where there are more than 40K gun deaths a year, 84% of people said they supported background checks for all firearms sales, and 70% said they favored “red flag” laws.6

Sources: 1Associated Press, 2Forbes, 3USA Today, 4NBC, 5Wall Street Journal and 6Reuters.

Narratives

  • Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. The president is determined to make the US safer, and Republicans who refuse to help pass popular, common sense gun safety laws — universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and repeal of immunity for gun manufacturers from liability — have left him no choice but to sign landmark orders like this one. President Biden will continue to do everything in his power to reduce America’s gun deaths count.
  • Republican narrative, as provided by The washington times. America has a crime problem, and Biden and the Democrats’ way of distracting from their inability to corral it is by signing orders that infringe on the Second Amendment rights of lawful gun owners. This war on gun rights has to stop, and attention has to be paid to changing the laws that are letting criminals run rampant across the country.