Psaki: Biden plans to issue EO on gun control [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden was considering releasing an executive order on gun control.
• Biden urged the House and Senate to legislate reforms to mitigate gun violence.
• Thirty-five Democrat Senators proposed a measure against prohibiting “assault weapons” this month.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced on Tuesday that President Joe Biden was planning to launch executive orders regarding gun control, following the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado that killed 10 people.

“We are considering a range of levers, including working through legislation, including executive action,” Psaki told the media at Air Force One while en route to Ohio.

The press secretary also said that during Biden’s vice presidency, he spearheaded “the effort on determining executive actions that could be taken on gun safety measures, it’s something that he has worked on, he’s passionate about, he feels personally connected to. But there’s an ongoing process and I think we feel we have to work on multiple channels at the same time.”

Based on recent reports, the White House was planning to execute orders that would mandate “ghost guns” to undergo background checks, especially those that are home-made without serial numbers. It is also considering to mandate a policy wherein the police would be advised when a gun buyer from a registered dealer would fail an FBI background check.

During a White House address on Tuesday, Biden asked the House and the Senate for reforms on gun control.

“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future. And to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again,” he said.

Essential measures, however, would need at least 60 votes to be passed as the Senate is presently facing strong partisan division.

This month, at least 35 Democrat Senators proposed a ban against “assault weapons,” which include semi-automatic guns like AR 15-style rifles.

Officials said that accused Atlanta shooter Robert Long reportedly purchased a semi-automatic pistol after passing a background check on the same day of the shooting spree. Another suspect, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of the Boulder, Colorado shooting, legally bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a week before the massacre.

During his term in 2018, President Donald Trump restricted the use of “bump stocks,” which paved the way for the rise of semi-automatic guns. The Supreme Court, for its part, rejected a legal challenge to such an order.

In the last decades, federal litigations extended people’s right to secure guns. It comes from the premise that a person can have a gun, per the US Second Amendment.

Source: New York Post