Gun-control advocates who have been waiting for President Biden to take action and begin infringing upon Americans’ right to keep and bear arms were pleased with his announcement on Thursday of several new executive orders he will be taking to, as he said, help end the “epidemic” of gun violence in the country.
Calling gun violence in America an “international embarrassment” and a “public health crisis,” Biden reassured gun-control activists and families of gun-violence victims, “We’re absolutely determined to make change.”
While Biden has repeatedly urged legislative action to advance gun control, he has vowed to take “common-sense steps” to enact gun regulations on his own.
One of these “common-sense steps” is an order for the Justice Department to, within 60 days, tighten regulations on pistol stabilizing braces.
Under current firearms regulations, enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), a “rifle” is considered a firearm designed to be held in two hands and fired from the shoulder. Any “rifle” with a barrel less than 16 inches long is considered a “short-barreled rifle” (SBR) and is heavily regulated, requiring would-be owners to pay a $200 fee and receive a “tax stamp” that must be kept with the firearm.
However, if such a firearm has a stabilizing brace rather than a buttstock, it is not classed as a rifle, but a pistol, obviating the need for the tax stamp and other restrictions. This, of course, has made semi-automatic firearms fitted with pistol braces extremely popular among gun enthusiasts, allowing them to own weapons with shorter barrels without the regulatory hassle.
Naturally, gun-control advocates view this as a “loophole,” and have wanted the ATF to classify such “pistols” as SBRs.
Under Biden’s new proposed executive orders, it appears as if this might happen.
Biden also said he will order the Justice Department to go after “ghost guns,” or firearm components without serial numbers that can be purchased and assembled by the purchaser into a complete firearm, thus bypassing a background check and making such weapons essentially untraceable. While not as popular as complete firearms, there is understandably a market for such guns, for privacy reasons as well as the ability to assemble a “custom” firearm from various components. For gun-control advocates, however, “ghost guns” are supposedly simply a way to put untraceable weapons into the hands of the criminal underworld and flood the nation’s streets with guns beneath the notice of authorities.
In truth, it is likely that most guns in this country have at some point passed from private sellers to private buyers or were given away or were stolen and are therefore untraceable already, making the supposed purpose of such laws completely futile, so this measure must be considered simply a first step in taking away guns from law-abiding people, not criminals, and should be fought by everyone who cares about personal safety and individual rights.
Biden’s planned executive order would have the Justice Department require background checks for the purchase of various gun components, ostensibly making the assembly of “ghost guns” much more difficult.
As could be expected, the president also said he would order the Justice Department to write model “red flag” laws, making it easier for states legislatures to pass them. Red flag laws (technically called Extreme Risk Protection Orders, or ERPOs), of course, enable law-enforcement to seize a person’s firearms upon a complaint that he is a threat to himself or others, even though he has neither committed nor been accused, much less convicted of, a crime.
Another of Biden’s orders, one likely less inflammatory to gun owners, will be to direct federal agencies to direct more money and support to violence-intervention programs in various high-crime communities across the country.
John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said the actions “will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic, and begin to make good on President Biden’s promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history.”
The National Rifle Association called Biden’s proposed orders “extreme” and said it was “ready to fight.”
In the meantime, gun enthusiasts are urged to purchase pistol stabilizing braces and firearms components while they still can.
