U.S. President Joe Biden will on Monday announce a new firearms regulation aimed at curbing the use of privately made guns, administration officials said, as he faces pressure to take more steps to combat the armed violence.
The regulation on so-called “ghost weapons” – unregulated, untraceable weapons made from kits – will address a critical gap in the government’s ability to trace them, requiring pre-purchase background checks and serial numbers on some of the components.
Biden is also expected to name Steve Dettelbach, a former US attorney from the state of Ohio, as his nominee to lead the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The president’s previous candidate was forced to withdraw amid opposition in the Senate.
The measures come at a time when gun violence and crime are on the rise in the United States, putting pressure on the White House to act. Gun violence traditionally increases in the summer months, which begin in June in the Northern Hemisphere, giving more urgency to Monday’s actions.
Biden is expected to address the new gun measures at a public event on Monday afternoon, according to people who received invitations.
The Justice Ministry’s new rule seeks to curb a type of weapon that has been increasingly seen at crime scenes across the country. Ghost weapon kits can be purchased online and a weapon can be crafted in under 30 minutes. Because regulators can’t track them, phantom guns are attractive to criminals and people with a criminal record, according to officials.
The new rules would require anyone purchasing a kit to undergo a background check, as is required for other types of firearm purchases. Kit sellers would also be required to mark components with a serial number, so that any weapon produced could be traced. And it would require firearms sellers to add a serial number to already-built phantom guns found in their businesses.
“The Biden administration is ensuring that these kits are treated like the deadly firearms they are,” a government official said ahead of the announcement.
“Ghost guns look like a gun, shoot like a gun and kill like a gun, but so far have not been regulated as a weapon,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement, celebrating the Biden administration for “bending its commitment to gun safety.”
Mia Tretta, who was shot and wounded with a phantom gun in a California school shooting in 2019, also praised the government for taking “a critical step” with the new regulation.
“If you can build an IKEA dresser, you can build a ghost gun,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it’s so easy to get a gun that not only changed my life, but did the same thing to thousands of other people. Finalizing this rule is a critical step in ensuring that no one else has to go through what my family went through.”
The Justice Department previously launched a national phantom gun regulation initiative, which “will train a national cadre of prosecutors and disseminate investigative and prosecution tools to help open cases against those who use phantom guns to commit crimes,” according to the White House. .
Phantom weapons have been used in several recent shootings, including at a Maryland high school in January. The exact number in circulation is unknown, given the inability of regulators to track them.
Between 2016 and 2021, the ATF received 45,000 reports of privately used firearms recovered by police, including 692 of homicides or attempted murders. The agency was able to trace just 1% of them, officials said, because the firearms do not have serial numbers.
Several states have moved to restrict sales as phantom guns become more common at crime scenes.
Last week, Maryland joined Washington, DC, and ten other states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington — in banning or restricting the purchase or use of phantom weapons, which are usually purchased online and assembled at home.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer again denounced the use of phantom guns during a news conference on Sunday, calling for a crackdown on the rise in privately-made firearms and talking about a deadly shooting in the Bronx on Friday. fair (8).
The New York Democrat blamed Republicans for delaying gun law reform while pushing the Biden administration to go further. “Today I am asking the government to go after phantom guns, creating regulations that will stop them. The federal government has the ability through regulations to stop these phantom guns,” he said.
Still, Biden’s planned firearms regulation sparked a backlash from gun rights advocates before it was even officially announced.
Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, said in a statement Sunday: “Biden’s proposal to create a comprehensive national gun registry and end the online sale of gun parts without passing a new law exemplifies his disregard for the Second Amendment.”
In September, Biden withdrew David Chipman’s nomination to lead the ATF after facing opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
Chipman, a former career ATF official, has come under scrutiny by gun rights advocates and the National Rifle Association for his work as a senior advisor to Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords — the organization started by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords who was shot. at an event in his Arizona district in 2011.
Dettelbach ran unsuccessfully for Ohio’s attorney general in 2018 after serving as the state’s U.S. attorney.
“We will be working hard to ensure that Steve Dettelbach receives the fair hearing and confirmation he deserves. He must be an uncontroversial candidate because he has a long history of working in law enforcement and for the public safety of the people of Ohio and the American people,” said one of the officials.
Paul LeBlanc of CNN contributed to this story.
Source: CNN Brasil
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