New office will augment Biden administration’s gun safety work including executive actions, White House officials say
White House officials have confirmed that President Joe Biden will establish a Gun Violence Prevention Office to be headed up by Vice President Kamala Harris during a press call on Sept. 21.
The president will formally announce the new office during a Rose Garden event on Friday, Sept. 22.
In a statement released Thursday night, President Biden said the office will build on his gun safety efforts.
“Today, I’m announcing additional steps forward with the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris,” President Biden is quoted as saying.
Kristine Lucius, deputy assistant to the president and domestic policy advisor to the vice president, said the plan is meant to “prevent gun violence and save lives.”
“The new office will be overseen by Vice President Harris, who has been a key leader in the Biden-Harris Administration’s effort to end our nation’s gun violence epidemic,” Ms. Lucius said.
Vice President Harris said she’s committed to the task set for the new office.
“Our promise to the American people is this: We will not stop working to end the epidemic of gun violence in every community because we do not have a moment or a life to spare,” she is quoted as saying.
Senior administration officials say the office will coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to reduce crimes committed by people with guns.
This will include approaches like ramping up implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), pressing for adopting extreme risk protection orders or so-called “red flag” laws, expanded background checks, and laws to hold gun makers accountable for gun crime.
Officials say the office will use all the tools at the president’s disposal by “being very creative and figuring out, within existing authority, what additional executive actions we may be able to take.”
White House Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary Stefanie Feldman will be the office’s director.
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