Kris Brown, president of Brady United, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control, told Yahoo News that there is more Biden can do if Congress ultimately fails to act. (Some of the responses below have been edited for clarity and length.)
Yahoo News: What can Biden do as president without Congress to take action on gun control? https://news.yahoo.com/gun-control-advocacy-president-says-biden-can-take-these-4-actions-on-guns-without-congress-173851137.html
1. Declare gun violence a public health epidemic.
Kris Brown: We lose about 45,000 Americans a year to gun violence, and gun violence now is the No. 1 killer of children in this country. More than automobile accidents, more than poisonings, more than unintentional injuries from any other cause. So it's right to declare it a public health epidemic. And what that does, it frees up funding, and it provides a coordinated approach through federal agencies to really tackle this comprehensively.
2. Redefine what a gun dealer is.
Brown: [Biden] can issue executive actions that really define [and clarify] what it is to be in the business of selling guns, and basically require anyone who sells more than five guns to be declared a gun dealer. That's very important, because right now, 1 in 5 guns sold today is sold with no background check at all. So the administration can do a lot to really crack down on that. We'd prefer Congress to act, but we want him to take action to bolster those efforts.
3. Establish a White House office of gun violence prevention.
Brown: We also want an office of gun violence prevention out of the White House. While we applaud and appreciate everything that the office of domestic policy, led by Susan Rice, who currently handles the administration’s efforts on gun violence prevention [has done], this crisis, this epidemic, deserves a coordinated approach and a coordinated office whose full-time job is understanding all of the levers that must be put in place to save children's lives in this country. It's that important. And we need to put that muscle behind it.
4. Direct the Justice Department to take action on illegal firearm sales.
Brown: The fourth is that we need the Department of Justice to really comprehensively crack down on the suppliers of "crime guns" in the United States and start increasing prosecution of those who are putting the [illegally obtained] guns on the criminal market. [A "crime gun" refers to a gun that has been recovered by law enforcement that may have been used in a crime, or a gun whose possession may itself have been a crime.] We have had very little prosecution until President Biden took office, but we need even more of a focus by U.S. attorneys across this country to crack down on the criminal market, because that is driving homicide increases all across this country. [Attorney General Merrick Garland announced recently that the Justice Department is cracking down on illegal firearms trafficking.]
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