Miami-Dade Democrats' Statement on Biden's EOs for Gun Reform
The Miami Dade Democratic Party commends President Biden for his Executive Orders, which represent a significant step forward towards the reduction of gun violence in our country. We hope Congress will follow suit by taking action to enact meaningful gun safety measures.
When announcing this legislation, President Biden stated: “They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress, but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence Enough prayers. Time for some action.” We agree with the President. Executive Orders are merely a start but cannot be a finish.
These Executive Orders, in summary, work to stop the proliferation of ghost guns, regulate pistols modified with stabilizing braces, help states enact red flag laws, and support community violence interventions.
Ghost guns are guns that can be built from kits or with a 3-D printer. This weaponry has no serial numbers making them almost untraceable. Currently, a background check is not required to purchase the kits used to build them.
Red Flag or Extreme Risk Laws allow family or law enforcement to petition a court to prohibit a person exhibiting symptoms of a desire to commit violence against themselves or others from being able to purchase a firearm.
President Biden’s executive order directs the Department of Justice to draft a model statute for states to enact, one model that will survive court challenges. We support such laws, so long as they afford individuals the opportunity for due process under the law.
Finally, a stabilizing brace allows pistols to be used in the same manner as a rifle and circumvents regulations on short-barreled rifles. These often make a pistol easier to conceal than a rifle.
The text of the 2nd Amendment permits the regulation of the right to bear arms. President Biden’s common-sense measures are constitutional and will withstand judicial scrutiny.
We urge Congress to also consider other rules that will protect us all from gun violence, such as closing the Charleston loophole, which allows persons to purchase firearms without a completed background check, making waiting periods effective, and banning high-capacity magazines, bump stocks, and other such conversion devices.
We stand in solidarity with all the victims, families, activists and organizations in Florida who have stepped up to bring these issues forward and are grateful to the Administration for taking action that is long overdue. It is now on Congress to act. We need gun reform now.
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