The Brady United Against Gun Violence campaign praised President Joe Biden’s executive order that was announced on Tuesday, which aims at cracking down on gun violence in the United States.
The new order, which was signed during a ceremony on the site of a mass shooting in California earlier this year, seeks to increase the total number of national background checks, promote proper gun safety and storage among owners, and help local law enforcement agencies make use of resources included in the bipartisan gun control law Biden signed into law in 2022.
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“Addressing gun violence will take more than one solution, and these executive orders will go a long way in preventing tragedies that kill over 40,000 people in America each year,” Brady President Kris Brown said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “The majorities of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and gun owners alike support expanding Brady Background Checks for gun purchases. While ultimately we can only achieve Universal Background Checks through legislation, Biden’s actions today have the potential to get us closer to that reality.”
The organization claimed that the Biden administration’s moves were a good step, but also needs to be implemented properly. The Justice Department for example would need to clarify what is meant by the term “engaged in the business,” while the Department of Defense would examine its gun procurement policies.
“We’ve got to be just as concerned with ensuring effective implementation of policies like these, as we do with their initial announcement,” Brady’s Vice President of Policy and Programs Christian Heyne told the Washington Examiner. “My hope is is that there will be some efforts here to ensure that these are fully implemented.”
Heyne also said the goal should be to keep guns temporarily away from those who are in crisis.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, defines the term “engaged in the business” as a “person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms,” but does not include those who occasionally buy or sell guns as a hobby.
The order also directs the president’s Cabinet to stand up a process to support communities reeling from mass shootings, and looks to improve the sharing of ballistics data between federal, state, and local law enforcement data.
The U.S. Concealed Carry Association also responded to the executive order, claiming that it took guns away from “law abiding Americans.”
“We need common-sense reforms, like national concealed carry reciprocity, that are grounded in reality rather than anti-gun political ideology,” U.S. Concealed Carry Association President Tim Schmidt said. “[We need] a new path, with the goal of keeping Americans safe by ensuring they can protect their families and loved ones at all times. [Tuesday’s] announcement falls woefully short of meeting that goal.”
Although the USCCA disagreed with the president’s approach to gun control, Heyne said he believed the majority of U.S. citizens on both sides of the aisle would agree with “commonsense laws” like a universal background check.
The background checks take two minutes to complete 90% of the time, according to Heyne, and verifies that the buyer does not have a domestic violence record. It also verifies the buyer meets the other criteria to purchase a weapon, such as being of legal age to buy the weapon.
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The new measures comes after a series of mass shootings caught the public’s attention in California in January. Mass shootings are defined by the Gun Violence Archive as multiple firearm homicide incidents involving 4 or more victims at one or more locations.
Currently, one in five gun sales are done without conducting proper background checks, or through the right licensing, Heyne said.
