Biden to issue order to step up gun background checks

SAN DIEGO — President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday to increase background checks on gun purchases, promote better and safer firearm storage, and ensure U.S. law enforcement gets the most out of bipartisan gun control . The law went into effect last summer.

The Democratic president plans to speak about his latest efforts to curb gun violence in a speech in Monterey Park, California. In January, a gunman broke into a dance hall near Los Angeles and shot and killed 20 people, killing 11, after a Lunar New Year celebration. He is also going to meet with the families of the victims and the rescuers of that day.

Biden’s gun rhetoric has only intensified — he regularly calls for a ban on so-called assault weapons in his speeches — and the Democrats didn’t push such a vociferous gun control platform even during the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president. But Biden has been emboldened by the midterms after his regular gun control talk failed to make huge losses, and he is expected to continue pushing for major changes as we move into 2024, his aides say.

Biden invited Brandon Tsai, a 26-year-old who took a semi-automatic pistol from a shooter in Monterey Park, to his address to the US Congress and praised the young man’s heroism.

“He saved lives. It’s time for us to do the same,” Biden said in his speech to Congress. “Ban assault weapons once and for all.”

But the president’s powers are limited by the bipartisan legislation passed by Congress last summer, the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades. This comes after the murders last year of 10 shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

“Too many lives have been taken by gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “But he thinks we need to do more. You will hear him urge Congress to take action and not stop… that we need to keep going.”

Biden will task his cabinet with developing a plan to improve the structure of government to support communities suffering from gun violence. The plan calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to tighten rules for federally licensed gun dealers so they know they are required to conduct background checks as part of the license.

Biden is also pressing federal law enforcement to better provide ballistics data for a clearing house that allows federal, state and local law enforcement to match cartridge cases to weapons. But local and state law enforcement agencies are not required to report ballistic data, and many do not, reducing the effectiveness of the clearinghouse.

And the President is going to ask the Federal Trade Commission to release a public report analyzing how gun manufacturers sell guns to minors and use military images to sell to the general public.

A bill passed last year, known as the Safer Communities Act, is seen by gun control advocates as a good start, but not far enough. According to a database of mass killings since 2006 maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, there have been 11 more mass shootings since the law was signed. These killings do not include shootouts in which fewer than four people were killed, and gun violence is also on the rise across the country.

“President Biden’s executive order today is a sure way to public safety,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This is the latest example of President Biden’s leadership on gun security and we are proud to support him as he takes strong action to help close the gun salesman loophole, which will greatly expand gun sales background checks, keep guns out of hands of dangerous people and save lives.”

Biden will also instruct his cabinet to make sure law enforcement understands the benefits of the new law, especially with regard to red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, which are designed to temporarily remove guns from people with potentially violent behavior and prevent them from harm to yourself or others.

Last month, the Justice Department sent more than $200 million to help states and the District of Columbia enforce troubling laws and other crisis intervention programs.

It has long been reported from Washington. Associated Press contributor Lindsey Whitehurst contributed to this report.