This executive order comes at a time when gun owners in the United States note how the vice president and former President Donald Trump are increasingly clashing over the issue of guns on the campaign trail. (Related: POLL: American voters trust Donald Trump more than Kamala Harris on firearms issues.)
The executive order establishes a new "emerging firearms threats task force" to crack down on machine-gun conversion devices and 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.
"The lack of guidance today on how to prepare students while minimizing the trauma of active shooter drills is unacceptable," Biden said, referring to the new executive order improving school-based active shooter drills. "I never thought I would have to sign something like this, but we do."
"Our nation is experiencing an epidemic of gun violence," Harris said during the same press conference announcing the executive order. "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."
However, research has long suggested that active shooter drills, can jeopardize the mental health of participants. One study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology on behalf of the pro-gun control lobbying group Everytown for Gun Safety found that school-based active shooter drills are associated with a 39 percent increase in depression and a 42 percent increase in stress and anxiety.
The executive order will require federal agencies to conduct assessments on government operational and legal capacities to detect, intercept and seize these supposedly illegal firearms and firearm components. The executive order also provides states the option to use Medicaid to pay healthcare providers for counseling parents and caregivers on firearm safety and injury prevention beginning in November.
Biden-Harris executive order establishes "enhanced background checks"
The Biden-Harris executive order also establishes "enhanced background checks" for individuals under the age of 21 who want to purchase guns. This process allows the Department of Justice to issue "model legislation that additional states may use to inform their own legislation and allow a carve-out to share juvenile records solely for the purpose of enhanced background checks."
The announcement added: "Part of the enhanced background check requires requesting records from state and local law enforcement and mental health repositories about potential purchasers under 21."
This process will also allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect additional information from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) on gunshot injury incidents, beginning June 2025.
"The FBI will implement a new injury code to reflect a gunshot wound in the NIBRS victim segment. NIBRS will also enable law enforcement agencies to submit additional detail as to how firearms were used in specific crimes, and the nature of the crime at issue," the White House announcement said.
Visit SecondAmendment.news for more about government regulation of firearms.
Watch this video featuring Eric Trump criticizing Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for mocking American gun owners.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Struggling coalition of gun owners for Harris-Walz has an average of only 8 members per state.
Kamala Harris once supported allowing police to enter homes of legal gun owners.
Sources include:
BigLeaguePolitics.Substack.com
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