Biden announces gun control actions as South Carolina reels from mass shooting
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President Joe Biden announced sweeping gun control actions on Thursday, a day after a mass shooting left five people dead in South Carolina.
Biden shared details Thursday about his executive actions on gun violence, which his administration called a “public health epidemic.”
On Wednesday, a well-known doctor, his wife and two grandchildren, and a worker at their home in Rock Hill were killed. A sixth person was injured, officials said.
Former NFL player Phillip Adams, who later died by suicide, has been identified as a suspect in the case. Police have not released a potential motive in the case.
Ahead of Biden’s official announcement, some gun control advocates noted the executive order coincided with the tragedy.
“Today is the day America makes a turn and puts a focus on saving lives,” Fred Guttenburg, parent of a student killed in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, wrote in a Twitter post that linked to a story about the South Carolina shooting. “Anyone who doubts the importance of today, here is the latest preventable but inevitable mass shooting. We are better than this.”
While a White House fact sheet about the executive actions didn’t directly address the South Carolina shooting, it referenced other recent killings.
“The recent high-profile mass shootings in Boulder — taking the lives of 10 individuals — and Atlanta — taking the lives of eight individuals, including six Asian American women — underscored the relentlessness of this epidemic,” the White House said. “Gun violence takes lives and leaves a lasting legacy of trauma in communities every single day in this country, even when it is not on the nightly news.”
The Biden administration said the six parts of the plan include:
Proposing a rule to crack down on so-called “ghost guns” without serial numbers, which make them difficult for police to trace
Proposing a rule to “make clear when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle”
Drafting “red flag” legislation for states to take up, which would allow officials to temporarily take guns away from people at risk of causing harm
Putting money toward efforts to curb violence in communities
Publishing an annual U.S. Department of Justice report on gun trafficking
Nominating David Chipman, a gun control advocate, as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which has gone without a confirmed leader for more than five years
“My job, the job of any president, is to protect the American people,” Biden said Thursday during his announcement. “Whether Congress acts or not, I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal as president to keep the American people safe from gun violence.”
Rock Hill doctor, wife, grandchildren, worker killed in York County mass shooting
