Gun-violence

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Transportation and Justice to work on a plan to reduce the loss or theft of firearms during shipment and bolster the reporting of such losses and thefts. According to the White House, there has been a 250% increase in the number of firearms reported lost or stolen during shipment between federally licensed firearms dealers between 2018 and 2022.

The order also includes various other provisions, including authorizing the public release of inspection records for firearms dealers cited for violating federal firearms laws; accelerating federal law enforcement reporting of ballistics data in hopes of catching shooters; improving federal support for gun violence survivors; and advancing efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons that are undetectable by metal detectors.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, told City News Service Biden’s executive order breaks no new ground.

“Everything the president is proposing is already law,” Parades said. “(California) has the most gun control laws of any state, the most extensive background checks anywhere, is the birthplace of ‘red flag laws’ and still, California has more mass shootings than any state, with Texas coming in a distant second. Gun control doesn’t work.”

Paredes said previously that Biden’s efforts targeting guns have generally focused “on the wrong people.”

“Given that the vast majority of criminal gun violence comes from a small number of repeat offenders, the focus needs to be on this subsection of society, rather than responsible and lawful gun owners,” Paredes told CNS.

Paredes said Biden has “consistently demonstrated his ignorance on everything related to guns and the Second Amendment, publicly stating that the Constitution and Second Amendment were ‘never absolute.’ He had made a number of prior comments that citizens shouldn’t be able to own popular guns that are in common use today for lawful purposes.”

Biden, during his remarks in Monterey Park, again said he is “determined once again to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

“I led that fight in 1994. The 10 years that law was in place, mass shootings went down. Our Republican friends let it expire 10 years later, and mass shootings tripled since then. Tripled. So let’s finish the job. Ban assault weapons. Ban them again, do it now. Enough. Do something. Do something big.”

He concluded his roughly 18-minute speech by offering comfort to the victims of the January shooting in Monterey Park.

“I know your hearts are broken, but I know your spirits are strong,” he said. “It takes time, but I promise you — I promise you — the day will come when the memory of your loved one brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. The tear will never fully go away, but when you have that smile first … that’s when you know, that’s when you know you’re going to make it. …

“My prayer for all of you is that day will come sooner than later, and I promise you, it will come,” he said.

After his speech, Biden met privately with family members of shooting victims, and spoke to first responders before again traveling by motorcade through the rain back to LAX, from which he traveled to Las Vegas for a Democratic National Committee reception.

The trip was Biden’s first to the Los Angeles area since Oct. 12-14 when he visited a Metro construction site, spoke at a political fundraiser and at Irvine Valley College.

Biden spent Monday in the San Diego area meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss the Australia-United Kingdom-United States partnership known as AUKUS.