Biden speaks in Monterey Park, Calif.; announces executive order intended to reduce gun violence

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President Biden traveled on Tuesday to Monterey Park, Calif., where a gunman killed 11 people at a Lunar New Year event in January. He spoke about an executive order that aims to reduce violence, in part by increasing background checks for firearm purchases.

Video Transcript

JOE BIDEN: Today, I'm announcing another executive order. I'll accelerate and intensify this work to save more lives more quickly.

First, this executive order helps keep firearms out of dangerous hands as I continue to call on Congress to require background checks for all firearm sales.

[APPLAUSE]

And in the meantime-- in the meantime, my executive order directs my attorney general to take every lawful action possible to move us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation. I just-- it's just common sense to check whether someone is a felon, a domestic abuser before they buy a gun.

The executive order also expands public awareness campaigns about red-flag orders, laws, which my son, before he died and the attorney general in Delaware, was a great proponent of and instituted. So more parents, teachers, police officers, health providers, and counselors know how to flag for a court that someone is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that make them a danger to themselves and others and temporarily remove that person's access to firearms.

And it promotes, this executive order, safe storage of firearms, something every responsible gun owner agrees with.