Joe Biden and Kamala Harris unveiled a new executive order aimed at tackling gun violence on Thursday, as the vice-president and Donald Trump clash over the issue on the campaign trail.
The order establishes a new “emerging firearms threats task force” to crack down on machine-gun conversion devices and unserialized, 3D-printed guns. The policy also calls on federal agencies to develop guidance for schools on active shooter drills to mitigate potential psychological harm to students.
“To talk about reducing crime and violence in America, you need to talk about guns in America,” Biden said during a press conference in Washington on Thursday. “There’s so much more we have to do. I think it’s time to reinstate the assault weapons ban and high-capacity magazines.”
Biden said: “The lack of guidance today on how to prepare students while minimizing the trauma of active shooter drills is unacceptable.” Referring to the new executive order improving school-based active shooter drills, the president said: “I never thought I would have to sign something like this, but we do.”
Biden called the impact of machine-gun conversion devices – weapons that have the power to transform a handgun into a fully automatic firearm – “devastating”.
Randall Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, also took the stage just days after a shooting outside a nightclub in the southern city killed four people and wounded 17 others. Authorities suspect the shooters used “conversion devices” to carry out the attack.
“Saving lives should not be Democrat or a Republican thing,” Woodfin said.
Harris expressed her support for the second amendment of the constitution, which protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, while also backing a ban on assault weapons and passing universal background checks, safe storage laws and red flag laws.
“Our nation is experiencing an epidemic of gun violence,” Harris said during the press conference. “We know that the prevalence of this violence causes trauma that is far too often undiagnosed and untreated, which means that the effect of it is from that moment and lingers for a lifetime.”
Before Harris made her remarks, Sari Kaufman, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in 2018, shared her personal experience with gun violence and showed her support for Harrist as the country’s next president.
“She has walked the halls of my school in Parkland alongside the families of the victims,” Kaufman said. “She has listened to gen Z leaders and understands how we are feeling.”
Research has long suggested that active shooter drills, although very common in US schools, can jeopardize the mental health of participants. One study conducted by Georgia Tech on behalf of the group Everytown for Gun Safety found that school-based active shooter drills are associated with a 39% increase in depression and a 42% increase in stress and anxiety.
“The aim is to help schools improve drills so they can more effectively prepare for an active shooter situation while also preventing or minimizing any trauma that may result from drills that are poorly implemented,” Stef Feldman, the director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, told reporters on a press call on Wednesday.
Thursday’s event marked a year since the establishment of the gun violence prevention office.
“Over the past year, we’ve made tremendous progress,” Biden said. “More background checks required for firearms sold at gun shows, online, and new interagency response teams to support communities after mass shootings.”
Besides Kaufman, several gun violence survivors and gun safety advocates attended the event.
The Biden administration announced last year Harris would oversee the nation’s first federal gun violence prevention office to try to stop the mass gun deaths and local homicides that affect Black and Latino US communities.
“These new executive actions will combat the dangers that come with new gun technologies, like 3D-printed guns and machine gun conversion devices, and improve active shooter drills in schools, which can traumatize our kids,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
“We applaud President Biden and Vice-President Harris for their tireless work to protect our schools and our communities from gun violence.”
Questions over gun access have become an issue in the presidential campaign, with Trump claiming in the presidential debate with Harris this month that Harris “wants to confiscate your guns”. Harris fiercely rejected that charge, noting that she and her running mate, Tim Walz, are both gun owners.
In a conversation with Oprah Winfrey last week, Harris indicated she was not afraid to use a firearm for self-defense, saying: “If someone breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”
Asked about Harris’s recent comments, a White House official told reporters that they show how gun ownership is not at odds with “commonsense” regulations on firearms.
“It’s a really good example of what is true across most of the country: that you can be a gun owner and also support commonsense gun safety laws,” the official said. “There really is no conflict between owning a gun and being someone who advocates for an assault weapons ban, universal background checks.”
