Washington DC:
Weeks before his term as US President comes to an end, Joe Biden signed a new executive order today to address the problem of gun violence in the US.
“Join Vice President Kamala Harris and me as we deliver remarks on addressing the scourge of gun violence in America,” President Biden posted on social media website X.
“In order to end the problem of gun violence in America, we need to first talk about the problem of guns in America,” the President said, before he gave a sad and worrying statistic – that “The number one cause of deaths of children in America is gun violence – even more than disease or accidents.”
“It is sickening,” the President said.
Earlier in the day, the President shared a post on his official X account stating that “Today, I’ll sign an Executive Order to crack down on emerging firearm threats like unserialized, 3D-printed guns and machine gun conversion devices.”
President Biden further said that the order will “Also direct my Cabinet to help improve school-based active shooter drills,” adding that “It is our job to do better.”
Data shows that the average number of civilian guns per 100 persons in America was 120.5 guns, which is more than double that of the next country on that list – Yemen (52.8 guns).
AMERICA’S GUN VIOLENCE PROBLEM
The United States has a serious gun violence problem, especially with an ever-increasing number of school and university shootings. According to a research conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics last year, child gun deaths in the US have hit record highs.
According to the data, 4,752 children died from gun-related injuries in 2021, the latest year for which data was available, up from 4,368 in 2020 and 3,390 in 2019. In fact, gun violence has been the number one cause of death for children in the United States since 2020.
The study further showed that Black children accounted for around 67% of firearm homicides while white children made up about 78% of gun-assisted suicides.
As recently as a fortnight ago, at least four people were killed in a school shooting in Georgia. The suspect, now arrested, turned out to be a 14-year-old.
The US has seen hundreds of shootings inside of schools and colleges in the past two decades, with the deadliest resulting in over 30 deaths at Virginia Tech in 2007. The carnage has sparked pitched debate over the US gun laws and the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which enshrines the right “to keep and bear arms.”
PRESIDENT BIDEN’S EXECUTIVE ORDER
In 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris was given charge of the department which looks into gun legislation. She was made responsible to help curb gun violence in America and to bring an end to the use of firearms in schools and other educational institutions.
Now, six weeks before the 2024 US Presidential election, President Biden has decided to bring in a legislation by Presidential Order – the highest authority in the US – to curb the menace of firearms and shootings at schools and colleges.
Under the order, the first part will focus on “emerging firearm threats”, including machine gun conversion devices – which turns a handheld gun or pistol into an automatic firearm or weapon. Such devices are already illegal, but since law enforcement agencies have found indiscriminate use of such equipment, the new legislation will ensure a crackdown on its availability.
The other threats that this legislation aims to tackle are unlicensed guns, or guns without serial numbers, that are 3D printed, which have a potential to go undetected even by scanners and metal detectors.
In the second part of the two-part Presidential order, Mr Biden has appealed to various departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State and even the Department of Education and other key departments involved to jointly draft Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs to ensure that there are regular drills in schools and vulnerable locations where similar incidents have occurred.
Under this order, the law enforcement authorities in the US will also have to check the sale of guns, ammunition, and other automatic and sub-automatic weapons.
More details of the the Presidential order will emerge once Mr Biden signs it and it is ratified.
AN APPEAL BEFORE THE ORDER
Earlier this month, President Biden called for a complete ban on assault weapons. “As a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence,” he had said.
He had also urged the US Congress to take strong action for gun control in the country. President Biden even reached out to Republican lawmakers, saying some of its leaders should “finally say enough is enough”, adding that “We have to do something together. Let’s ban assault weapons.”
He had acknowledged that these steps “won’t bring back those children,” however, it would “help save lives if we do the things we’re talking about.” He further said, “We can do if we do it together…and I really think we can.”
President Biden also called for thorough checks and balances over the sale of arms and ammunition, calling for detailed background checks. He also appealed to end the immunity for gun manufacturers as well as for parents who allow their children to have weapons to be held accountable.
RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
The school shooting in Georgia two weeks ago was the latest among dozens across the US in recent years, including deadly ones in Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, Newtown, and Uvalde, Texas.
So far, at least 385 mass shooting incidents have taken place in the US in 2024 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which considers mass shootings as those in which four or more victims are shot. That’s an average of more than 1.5 mass shootings every day in the United States of America.
