WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 500 people — some with ties to transnational cartels and organized crime gangs — have been charged with gun trafficking and other crimes under landmark gun safety legislation. Joe Biden signed two years ago on Tuesday.
A White House report obtained by The Associated Press on the implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act also says that improved background checks under the new law have stopped about 800 sales of firearms to people under 21 who do not have them. were allowed to buy.
It highlights that 14 states are using or plan to use funding from the legislation to make better use of red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to remove guns from people in crisis but are often underused or improperly handled. understood. And the report explains how $85 million in funding has been awarded to 125 school districts in 18 states to help identify students in need of mental health care and help them access it.
“It was designed to reduce gun violence and save lives,” Biden recently said of the law. “And I’m so proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made since then.”
The bill was a signature achievement for the Democratic president, and details of how it was implemented come as he seeks re-election in November. But Biden is also quick to say the bill didn’t go far enough, as he continues to push for stricter background checks and has called for a ban on assault weapons.
Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trumpmeanwhile, has promised no new gun regulations if he returns to the White House.
Trump has spoken twice at National Rifle Association events this year and was endorsed by the group in May. The former president has claimed that Biden “has 40 years of experience ripping firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.” His campaign and the Republican National Committee also announced the formation of a Gun Owners for Trump coalition, which also includes gun rights activists and people who work in the firearms industry.
Biden created the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and issued new rules that mean tens of thousands of firearms dealers in the United States will have to conduct background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores. . He is also encouraged to make firearms storage safer.
Biden’s campaign believes gun control is a motivating issue for voters, especially college-educated suburban women, who could be decisive in several key battlegrounds this fall. Biden’s campaign and allies have circulated clips of Trump saying, “We’ve got to get over it,” after an Iowa school shooting in January, then telling NRA members in May that he did “nothing” on guns during his presidency .
About 7 in 10 college-educated suburban women who voted in the 2022 midterm elections supported stricter gun control laws, although fewer than 1 in 10 cited it as the biggest problem facing the country, according to AP VoteCast , a broad-based survey among voters. .
Violent crime fell in 2023, reversing a coronavirus pandemic-era spike, but guns are the biggest child killer in the US, according to research from the American Academy of Pediatrics. So far this year, 110 children under the age of 11 have been killed by firearms, and 566 between the ages of 12 and 17. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the U.S. increased 50% between 2019 and 2021.
And according to AP data, there have been 12 mass murders involving firearms in 2024. A mass murder is defined as an attack that kills four or more people within 24 hours, not including the perpetrator. The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the country’s rapidly growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms.
Efforts to control guns are often thwarted by the courts. The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court last year expanded gun rights and changed the way courts must review restrictions on firearms. It recently overturned a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, the accessories for rapid-fire weapons used in the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.
But late last week, the court upheld a gun control law intended to protect victims of domestic violence. The case has been closely watched for its potential implications for cases questioning other gun control laws, including the prosecution of Hunter Biden. The president’s son was convicted of lying on a form to buy a firearm while addicted to drugs, and his lawyers have indicated they will appeal.
President Biden signed the gun safety legislation on June 25, 2022, a bipartisan compromise that came after a series of mass shootings, including the killings of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
Federal cases prosecuted under the new law include a defendant sentenced to 23 years in prison for trafficking weapons in gang-related shootings, and another given two years for running an illegal gun business.
In March, five men were arrested in Texas on charges of trafficking military weapons destined for a drug cartel in Mexico. The charges include gun trafficking and straw purchases, where a gun is purchased by one person on behalf of another person who is legally unable to make the purchase. Hundreds of illegal firearms were taken off the streets.
According to the implementation report, the Biden administration has also funded nearly 80 organizations across the country using $250 million from legislation and other appropriations to expand community violence intervention initiatives.
