Breaking News
Get 45% Off 0
👀 Ones to Watch: The MOST undervalued stocks to buy right now
See Undervalued Stocks

Background checks blocked thousands of gun sales to youth, domestic abusers, White House says

Published Sep 22, 2024 05:08AM ET
Saved. See Saved Items.
This article has already been saved in your Saved Items
 
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stands next to U.S. President Joe Biden during the delivery of remarks after a roundtable discussion with advisors on steps to curtail U.S. gun violence, at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 23, 202

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enhanced background checks have blocked thousands of gun sales to people under the age of 21 and those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes in the past year, the White House said on Sunday, a year after President Joe Biden set up a new office to accelerate work on preventing gun violence.

Homicides have dropped 17% in the period, building on the largest-ever drop in homicides in 2023, the White House said. It said data from the Gun Violence Archive showed that mass shootings were also down 20% to date in 2024 compared to a year earlier and would reach their lowest level this year since 2019.

The FBI has conducted more than 300,000 enhanced background checks of individuals under 21 required under Biden's Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed into law in June 2022. It denied more than 3,500 of those transactions, with the enhanced background checks alone responsible for nearly 900 blocked sales, the White House said. Background checks for those convicted of domestic violence crimes have blocked more than 4,600 sales so far this year.

Stefanie Feldman, who heads the new office, said the progress reflected a wide range of efforts, including dozens of executive actions since Biden took office, increased collaboration among federal agencies, closer work with state and local governments, and increased funding for enforcement of existing laws and mental health programs.

She told Reuters that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 5 presidential election, would announce additional executive action soon.

Feldman declined to provide any details, but said the action involved some "wholly new ideas" and would take hard work to complete before Biden leaves office in January.

Gun safety has been a big focus for Biden and Harris - both of whom are gun owners - since they took office in 2021.

The U.S. surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis in June, calling for more research funding, better mental health access and other steps such as secure storage.

Democrats largely favor stricter gun laws as a way to reduce deaths from gun violence, while Republicans generally oppose stricter laws, citing the right to bear arms established in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

Despite partisan divisions, Feldman said her office had worked well with Republican state and local elected officials, and 17 states had passed legislation to address gun violence.

The office was also working with non-elected officials, including healthcare providers and executives, law enforcement and community leaders, some of whom might identify as Republican but shared a commitment to reduce gun violence.

"The further away you get from Washington, the less political this issue actually is," she said. "Everyone wants their kid to come home from school safely. Everyone wants their kid to be able to go play in the neighborhood and be safe."

Background checks blocked thousands of gun sales to youth, domestic abusers, White House says
 

Related Articles

Add a Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:  

  •            Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.

  •           Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed. 

  •           Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.

  • Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases. Comments that are written in all caps and contain excessive use of symbols will be removed.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and comments containing links will be removed. Phone numbers, email addresses, links to personal or business websites, Skype/Telegram/WhatsApp etc. addresses (including links to groups) will also be removed; self-promotional material or business-related solicitations or PR (ie, contact me for signals/advice etc.), and/or any other comment that contains personal contact specifcs or advertising will be removed as well. In addition, any of the above-mentioned violations may result in suspension of your account.
  • Doxxing. We do not allow any sharing of private or personal contact or other information about any individual or organization. This will result in immediate suspension of the commentor and his or her account.
  • Don’t monopolize the conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also strongly believe in giving everyone a chance to air their point of view. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.
  • Any comment you publish, together with your investing.com profile, will be public on investing.com and may be indexed and available through third party search engines, such as Google.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Write your thoughts here
 
Are you sure you want to delete this chart?
 
Post
Post also to:
 
Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?
1000
Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.
Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.
Thanks for your comment. Please note that all comments are pending until approved by our moderators. It may therefore take some time before it appears on our website.
 
Are you sure you want to delete this chart?
 
Post
 
Replace the attached chart with a new chart ?
1000
Your ability to comment is currently suspended due to negative user reports. Your status will be reviewed by our moderators.
Please wait a minute before you try to comment again.
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block

Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?

By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.

%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List

Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.

Report this comment

I feel that this comment is:

Comment flagged

Thank You!

Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Continue with Apple
Continue with Google
or
Sign up with Email