Hours after announcing an executive order for stricter background checks to purchase guns, President Joe Biden went to Los Angeles County to explain the order.

President Biden called his background check order a “common sense” regulation

“This executive order helps keep firearms out of dangerous hands as I continue to call on congress to require background checks for all firearm sales,” Biden said Tuesday. “In the meantime, my executive order directs my attorney general to take every lawful action possible to move us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”

Biden spoke in Monterey Park, weeks after a Lunar New Year mass shooting that left 11 residents dead. Upon arrival, the president met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Congresswoman Judy Chu and Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

“Judy shared with me that this is a tight-knit community with intergenerational households and deep reverence and respect for its elders,” Biden said Tuesday. “Proving that even with heavy hearts, they have unbreakable spirits.”

The president’s order “clarifies” the definition of a firearm dealer, requiring them to register as Federal firearms licensees (FFL). The order supports the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was passed by congress in 2022 after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

While the new order is not a sweeping background check regulation, the order would open the door for fewer firearms being sold to former felons and or someone with a history of domestic abuse.

The order also prevents firearm dealers who had previously had their licenses revoked from selling firearms in the future.

The Secretary of Education will also have a role in the order, giving way for opportunities to support “red flag laws” that encourage looking for signs that individuals may be a danger to themselves, or others, limiting their access to firearm purchases.

Biden said the order will “move as as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”

His statement on universal background checks saw pushback from Republican leaders such as former candidate for California Governor, Larry Elder, who wrote on Twitter that “Democrats continue gun control push based on unreliable statistics.”

Idaho Senator Jim Risch accused Biden of having a “vendetta” against gun owners.

“President Biden is proposing universal background checks without involving Congress,” Risch wrote on Twitter. “When will this administration stop going after law-abiding gun owners? I will fight for Idahoans’ Second Amendment rights & push back on Biden’s vendetta against lawful gun ownership.”

The background check order may not be the last attempt at gun control regulations by Biden, as he also stated he was “determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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