8th April, 2021
U.S. President Joe Biden announced measures today to address the epidemic of gun violence in the country.
The measures via executive orders aims to tighten regulations of buyers of “ghost guns”.
These are homemade firearms that usually are assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine and often lack serial numbers used to trace them.
The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule aimed at reining in ghost guns within 30 days, though details of the rule weren’t immediately issued.
A second proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces, like the one used by the Boulder, Colorado, shooter in a rampage last month that left 10 dead.
The rule will designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles, which require a federal license to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 tax.
The gun control measures were Biden’s first since taking office in January.
Biden also nominated David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Biden was forced to act after the Senate sat on a background-check bill passed last month by the House.
The Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.
More to follow