Biden to follow 'merchants of death' who sell against the law guns
24 June, 2021
US President Joe Biden pledged on Wednesday to follow illegal gun dealers and boost federal funding and support for local law enforcement, as homicides have risen sharply in large cities.
"Merchants of death are breaking regulations for profit," Mr Biden said.
He said the administration would have "zero tolerance" for rogue firearms dealers accountable for breaking federal laws.
Mr Biden said the federal government would help states to hire more cops using funds already approved to greatly help the economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"My message to you is this," Mr Biden said, addressing gun dealers who "wilfully" break regulations.
"We will see you and we'll seek your licence to market guns. We'll be sure you can't sell death and mayhem on our streets."
The administration will strengthen efforts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to avoid gun trafficking across states, Mr Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the White House, detailing steps the Department of Justice unveiled on Tuesday.
In April, Mr Biden signed executive orders asking the department to crack down on self-assembled "ghost guns".
Such orders allow him to do something quickly without looking forward to Congress, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority and Republicans generally oppose gun control legislation.
Gun rights, protected by the next Amendment of the US Constitution, are among the thorniest political issues in America, where in fact the rate of gun deaths exceeds that of other wealthy countries.
In 2020, homicides in large US cities rose 30 per cent from a year earlier, while gun assaults rose 8 %, with the most effective rate in big cities including Chicago and Houston, the White House said.
It had been quoting from a written report by the non-partisan research group the Council on Criminal Justice.
Overall, the national rate is still far below the national average in the 1970s or 1980s.
The "precipitous rise in homicides coincided with the emergence of mass protests after George Floyd was killed in late May by a officer in Minneapolis", the report said.
It said there is "no simple connection" between police violence, protests and community violence.
Property crimes, such as burglaries and larceny, fell drastically in 2020.
Mr Biden and Mr Garland met the mayors of Baltimore, Maryland and Rapid City, South Dakota, the police chief of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and other authorities to discuss community safety precautions.
The US Treasury Department released information on how states and localities could tap into the $350 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act to respond to violent crime, including by buying community policing.
The administration faces growing impatience from gun-safety activists who would like Mr Biden to act faster against gun violence after he campaigned on a pledge to fight the "epidemic" on his first day in office.
This year, 20,989 Americans died due to gun violence through June 23, over fifty percent through suicide, said the Gun Violence Archive, a study group.
The Republican Party said Mr Biden's Democratic administration "should have stood up to Democrats" who usually do not sufficiently support police.
US gun sales soared in 2020 through the coronavirus pandemic amid social unrest over police killings of black persons and a contested presidential election.
At that time, some experts warned a surge in homicides could possibly be next.
"It's pretty clear that more guns is more death," Harvard University's Prof David Hemenway told Reuters in October.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com