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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 25 Juni 2021

Biden targets law-breaking gun dealers in anti-crime plan

police’ movement and some billion of the $1.9 trillion
of the disruption we had in Legislation to expand back- COVID-19 relief package
civil society last year,” Ne- ground checks has so far can be used by cities to hire
braska Gov. Pete Ricketts said stalled in the Senate after the law enforcement officers, pay
on Fox News. “And I think House passed it in March, overtime, prosecute gun traf-
that’s part of, when you start even though Majority Leader fickers and invest in technol-
undermining that basic foun- Chuck Schumer vowed then ogy to make law enforcement
dation, you start breaking that the Senate would hold a more efficient.
apart the bonds that hold us vote on the bill.
together and that’s why you While crime is rising — ho-
see an increase in crime.” Connecticut Sen. Chris micides and shootings are
Murphy has been negotiat- up from the same period last
Biden announced a “zero ing for weeks with individual year in Chicago; Los Ange-
tolerance” policy that would Republicans to see if there les; Minneapolis; Portland,
give no leeway to gun deal- is legislation that could win Oregon; Baltimore; Baton
ers who fail to comply with enough votes for passage. Rouge, Louisiana, and Hous-
federal law — their licenses One option is to narrow the ton — violent crime overall
to sell would be revoked on a scope of the House bill and remains lower than it was a
first offense. expand background checks decade ago or even five years
only to commercial sales like ago. Most violent crimes
The president has already an- gun shows. Most Republi- plummeted during the first
nounced a half-dozen execu- cans oppose regulating pri- six months of the coronavirus
tive actions on gun control, vate sales between individu- pandemic, as people stayed
(AP) — President Joe suggestions for beleaguered including going after “ghost als, as the House bill would indoors and away from oth-
Biden announced new ef- localities. He’s encouraging guns,” homemade firearms do, but some have said they ers, then started creeping up
forts Wednesday to stem cities to invest some of their that lack serial numbers for would support tougher regu- last summer.
a rising national tide of COVID-19 relief funds into tracking and often are pur- lation of gun shows.
violent crime, declaring policing and pushing alter- chased without background It all comes against the back-
the federal government is native crime reduction steps checks. Biden will seek increased drop of the national debate
“taking on the bad actors such as increased community transparency on gun data and on policing and racism —
doing bad things to our support and summer jobs for A number of anti-crime and better coordination among and as a police reform bill is
communities.” But ques- teenagers — often both tar- gun safety groups, including states, and he will push Con- being crafted in Congress.
tions persist about how ef- gets and perpetrators of vio- the Brady Campaign and Ev- gress for more money for the
fective the efforts can be lence. erytown for Gun Safety, ap- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, As a senator, Biden wrote sev-
in what could be a turbu- plauded the administration’s Firearms and Explosives, eral major anti-crime packag-
lent summer. But it’s voluntary. efforts. the agency responsible for es, including a 1994 bill that
enforcing federal gun laws contained provisions now
Crime rates have risen af- The president has been clear “The president is helping and regulating gun dealers. viewed by some as an overre-
ter plummeting during the that he is opposed to the “de- start a much-needed conver- The Justice Department is action to the crime spikes in
initial months of the coro- fund the police” movement, sation about reducing violent also launching strike forces the 1980s and 1990s. Critics
navirus pandemic, creat- which has been effectively crime. A greater investment in Chicago, New York, Los say those bills helped lead to
ing economic hardship and used against other Demo- in community interventions Angeles, San Francisco and mass incarceration of Black
anxiety. Biden’s plan focuses crats to cast them as anti-law will help take a bite out of Washington, D.C., to help Americans, and Biden’s in-
on providing money to cities enforcement. violent crime,” said Paul Del- take down illegal gun traf- volvement became an issue
that need more police, offer- Ponte, head of the National fickers. in his 2020 campaign.
ing community support and “This is not a time to turn Crime Prevention Coun-
most of all cracking down on our backs on law enforce- cil. “Strategies that increase Police officials have said they Biden has expressed second
gun violence and those sup- ment,” said Biden, who not- public engagement in public are struggling with increasing thoughts about some aspects
plying illegal firearms. ed that “crime historically safety are proven crime stop- crime and continued tensions of the legislation. But he and
rises during the summer, and pers. Putting more police between police and commu- his allies still point to the
“These merchants of death as we emerge from this pan- officers who are trained and nities; some say their calls for law’s provisions to address
are breaking the law for prof- demic the traditional sum- certified in crime prevention support aren’t answered as domestic violence, ban as-
it,” Biden said. “If you will- mer spike may be even more on the streets of our commu- they take the blame for the sault weapons and finance
fully sell a gun to someone pronounced than it usually nities makes sense.” spike. Biden noted that $350 community policing.
who’s prohibited, my mes- would be.”
sage to you is this: We’ll find
you and we’ll seek your li- But he’s also is trying to
cense to sell guns. We’ll make boost progressives’ efforts to
sure you can’t sell death and reform policing, following a
mayhem on our streets.” year of demonstrations and
public anguish sparked by the
But there are also tricky poli- killing by police of George
tics at play, and Biden’s plan Floyd and other Black peo-
shows how few options the ple across the country. While
Democratic president has on combating crime and over-
the issue. hauling the police don’t have
to be at odds, the two efforts
The steps he outlined are are increasingly billed that
aimed at going hard after gun way.
dealers who break federal law
and establishing strike forces Biden will try to do both
in several cities to help stop at once. But Republicans
weapons trafficking. He also quickly tried to portray his
said he would seek more measures as government
money for the agency that overreach and linked them to
tracks the nation’s guns. efforts to rein in policing.

But the rest of his new strat- “I think a lot of it ties back
egy boils down mostly to to this whole ‘defund the