President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new set of executive actions aiming to minimize gun violence on Thursday, giving Harris a win on a top issue for progressive voters heading into the 2024 general election.
Since entering the race, Harris has called for universal background checks for all firearms sales and the reinstatement of a national assault weapons ban, but both measures would likely fail in a split Congress.
The vice president spoke ahead of the president Thursday evening and opened her remarks by thanking gun violence activists attending the event for “all that you do to sacrifice your time and your hearts to give what you give to so many,” including Biden himself in that group.
“I believe the right to be safe is a civil right and that the people of America have a right then, to live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence,” Harris continued. “It is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”
The vice president vowed to “continue to fight to end the epidemic of gun violence and to keep our communities and our children safe.”
Shortly after, Biden stepped behind the podium to a standing ovation from the crowd and chants of “Thank you, Joe!”
“Thank you for the courage to be here. I know the intensity of your feelings, but thank you because it really does require to relive the moment it occurred,” the president told the crowd.
Biden proceeded to tie gun violence reform directly to efforts to combat all crime across the nation, claiming that recent data showing violent crime decreasing makes “clear” that “trying to talk about reducing crime and violence in America, you need to talk about guns in America.”
He also took a shot at Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump’s running mate, for describing school shootings as “facts of life.”
“Who the hell do these people think they are?” a fiery Biden posed to the crowd.
“We need your help in fighting and standing up to the gun lobby, gun manufacturers, the politicians who oppose common sense gun legislation, because whether a Democrat or a Republican, independent, we all want our families to be safe,” the president closed.
According to the Biden administration, the executive order itself will attempt to crack down on 3D-printed conversion components that can turn handguns into automatic weapons and 3D-printed firearms in general. The order will also seek to improve the experience of active shooter drills for students across the country.
Biden mentioned that a 3D-printed converter was used during a mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama over the weekend.
Biden announced the “Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force,” which has a 90-day deadline to submit a report outlining an “assessment of the threat posed by machinegun conversion devices and unserialized, 3D-printed firearms” and the federal law enforcement’s ability to detect such threats.
On the school front, Biden is ordering the Departments of Education and Homeland Security to develop and publish within 110 days new information and materials to assist K-12 schools in explaining and carrying out active shooter drills.
Combating gun violence marks one of the few, bipartisan high marks for Biden’s four years in office. In 2022, he signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, though the final legislation lacked many of the gun violence proposals put forward by the president including the reauthorization of 1994’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
The White House said that Thursday’s announcement intentionally ties to Biden’s creation of the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was stood up by the Safer Communities Act and which Harris currently oversees.
Furthermore, the Biden administration has taken credit for recent drops in domestic homicides and other gun-related crimes.
Administration officials said Thursday morning that “data from the Gun Violence Archive indicates that the number of mass shootings so far this year is 20% lower than it was at this time last year.”
Harris has previously made headlines by briefly discussing owning a gun herself throughout her truncated campaign, including at her September debate with Trump, as evidence that promoting “common sense” gun violence reforms does not amount to attacks on the Second Amendment.
“This business about taking everyone’s guns away, Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” she stated during ABC’s debate on Sept. 10. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Still, the vice president has faced questions about how her current position squares with past statements endorsing mandatory gun-buyback programs.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied during Thursday’s briefing that Harris has shown any daylight on the issue throughout her political career.
“When it comes to the VP and owning a gun, she can speak for herself. The campaign could speak for that. Her office can speak for that. I’m not — that’s for them to speak to,” she told reporters. “It is not in it. “There’s no conflict here.”
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“At the end of the day, gun violence is an epidemic in our country. Think about our school schools, our grocery stores, it’s an epidemic,” Jean-Pierre continued. “That should be the focus. How do we make sure that we end this epidemic? We want to see responsible gun ownership.”
You can watch Biden and Harris’s remarks in full below.