WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she believes the right to be safe is a civil right \u2014 and that means a right to live free from gun violence \u2014 as President Joe Biden signed an executive order that seeks to restrict new technologies that make guns easier to fire and obtain.
\n\u201cIt is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment, or you want to take everyone\u2019s guns away,\u201d Harris said during an event at the White House. \u201cI am in favor of the Second Amendment and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.\u201d
\nHarris said the American people have a right to \u201clive, work, worship and learn without fear of violence \u2014 including gun violence.\u201d
\nThe Democratic nominee for president leads the first-ever White House office of gun violence prevention, which aims to curb violence, help communities recover from the trauma of that violence and coordinate the federal response. But Harris often says during campaigning that she\u2019s a gun owner and insists she doesn\u2019t want to take weapons away from responsible firearms owners.
\nThe president sat down as a crowd gathered around him to sign the order, then he handed the pen to Harris.
\n\u201cKeep it going, boss,\u201d he said.
\nThe order directs the president\u2019s staff to research how active shooter drills may cause trauma to students and educators in an effort to help schools create drills that maximize effectiveness and limit harm.
\n\u201cWe just have to do better and can do better,\u201d Biden said, also calling for better funding for federal law enforcement. \u201cNever thought I\u2019d have to sign something like this, but we do.\u201d
\nThe order also establishes a task force to investigate the threats posed by machine-gun-conversion devices, which can turn a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic firearm, and will look at the growing prevalence of 3D-printed guns, which are printed from an Internet code, are easy to make and have no serial numbers so law enforcement can\u2019t track them. The task force has to report back in 90 days \u2014 not long before Biden is due to leave office.
\nThe president has promised he and his administration will work through the end of the term, focusing on the issues most important to him. Curbing gun violence has been at the top of the 81-year-old president\u2019s list.
\nHe often says he has consoled too many victims and traveled to the scenes of too many mass shootings. Biden was instrumental in the passage of gun safety legislation and has sought to ban assault weapons. But there\u2019s more to do, he says, and he\u2019ll continue to work after he leaves office.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s time we establish universal background checks and require safe storage of firearms,\u201d Biden said. \u201cStart holding parents accountable for being negligent.\u201d
\nOverall, stricter gun laws are desired by a majority of Americans, regardless of what the current gun laws are in their state. That desire could be tied to some Americans\u2019 perceptions of what fewer guns could mean for the country \u2014 namely, fewer mass shootings.
\nGun violence continues to plague the nation. Four people were killed and 17 others injured when multiple shooters opened fire Saturday at a popular nightlife spot in Birmingham, Alabama, in what police described as a targeted \u201chit\u201d on one of the people killed.
\nBirmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, in introducing the president, told the crowd about his personal experience with gun violence. His brother was shot to death and he heard his mother\u2019s screams of pain.
\n\u201cI heard that scream again this past Saturday, as the lives of four people were stolen and 17 other victims were shot during the horrific mass shooting in Birmingham,\u201d he said.
\nWoodfin said curbing gun violence should not be partisan. \u201cSaving lives should not be a Democrat or a Republican thing. Saving lives is the most American thing we can do together,\u201d he said.
\nAs of Thursday, there have been at least 31 mass killings in the US so far in 2024, leaving at least 135 people dead, not including shooters who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
\nThe order was praised by gun-control groups, but criticized by Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, who said it was \u201cjust one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she believes the right to be safe is a civil right \u2014 and that means a right to live free from gun violence \u2014 as President Joe Biden signed an executive order that seeks to restrict new technologies that make guns easier to fire and obtain. \u201cIt is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":70790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70791,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70770\/revisions\/70791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}