President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order on gun control prior to visiting survivors and the victim's families of a mass shooting at a dance hall in Monterey Park, California, which occurred on Jan. 21 and left 11 people dead.
The executive order, which the “White House called the most comprehensive policy the president can enact without Congress,” according to Reuters, lays out nine actions that include strengthening universal background checks to the highest level possible within existing law and increasing awareness of red flag laws.
The move triggered many Republicans and gun rights groups. National Association for Gun Rights President Dudley Brown issued a statement saying Biden is "aiming to be the most anti-gun president in our nation's history," Reuters reported.
Although Biden said the order is “the most significant gun safety reform in nearly three decades,” he called on Congress to “do more,” by banning assault weapons. With the U.S. House now under the control of a Republican majority, that’s increasingly unlikely.
Strangely absent from speaking out about Biden's order was former President Donald Trump, who at the time of publication hadn't posted to Truth Social about the new law despite a swath of his supporters commenting under his recent, unrelated, posts with pro-gun memes and messages.
Mass Shootings and Gun Deaths In The U.S.
Only 2.5 months into this year, 154 mass shootings have already taken place in the U.S. in 2023, according to Wikipedia, although the data varies across other websites. Mass shootings, combined with other gun-related deaths, take the lives of about 40,000 Americans annually, according to Reuters.
The number of deaths caused by firearms has been steadily increasing since 2000, partly due to the number of mass shootings, which Biden says has tripled since 2004. That year, the George W. Bush administration allowed a 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, signed by former president Bill Clinton, to expire.
Since the ban expired, gun deaths soared from 29,569 in 2004 to 45,222 in 2002, according to USA Facts.
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