Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., attended Friday’s kick-off ceremony.
By Lynn Sweet
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in the Rose Garden Friday at an event where President Joe Biden (left) announced the formation of a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — With the nation grappling with chronic gun violence — and with Congress unlikely to pass any new laws — President Joe Biden on Friday launched a first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, with Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., in the Rose Garden for the kick-off ceremony.
Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the new office Biden created by executive order, as the focus of the White House and the groups working to curb gun violence increasingly look to state and local laws to take actions, since Republicans in Congress have no inclination to back more gun-related measures.
The new office will “drive and coordinate a government and a nationwide effort to curb gun violence in America,” Biden said.
Added Harris: “With this new office, we will use the full power of the federal government to strengthen the coalition of survivors and advocates and students and teachers and elected leaders to save lives and fight for the right of all people to be safe from fear and to be able to live a life where they understand that they are supported in that desire and that right.”
The office will have four “primary responsibilities,” Biden said:
• Implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and other gun-related executive orders already announced. Biden signed the Safer Communities law in June 2022, with Congress acting for the first time in almost three decades, moving legislation in the wake of mass slaughters in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Biden celebrated passage of that law at a an event on the South Lawn in July 2022 — a week after a gunman, using an assault weapon, killed seven people and wounded dozens of others at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade.
The safer communities law did not include an assault weapons ban or even put limits on high-capacity magazines. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10 signed into law a measure banning the sale and distribution of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in Illinois.
• Coordinate more support for survivors, their families and communities impacted by gun violence. Biden said he envisioned a federal government response “the same way FEMA responds to natural disasters.” That would include mental health services and financial assistance.
• Identify new executive actions Biden can take.
• As Biden said, “expand our coalition of partners in states and cities across America. …. We need more state and local help to get these laws passed locally as well.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson discusses gun violence in an interview outside the White House on Friday. Johnson was in Washington for a Rose Garden event launching a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times
Johnson, asked what this new White House office could do for Chicago, called it “a real good opportunity” to coordinate state, federal and local efforts. Johnson, sworn in last May, noted he created a City Hall office for community safety, appointing a deputy mayor to focus on the gun issue.
Preckwinkle, who was at that White House event marking the Safer Communities Act passage, was asked what the office could accomplish.
“We always need more resources,” she said. “And if there is a point of contact to try to secure those resources, I think that is tremendously helpful. And having an office in the federal administration that has this as their mission, to work with local units of governments to meet the challenges that gun violence presents, I think will be very helpful.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was at the White House Friday for an event launching a new gun safety office.
Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times
Kelly, whose district runs from the South Side of Chicago to near Kankakee, was asked about the impact this office could have on the Chicago area. She said this could help all the local and national gun groups coordinate more.
“There will be more investments in neighborhoods and underserved communities and our youth. I always say nothing stops a bullet like an opportunity.”
I always say nothing stops a bullet like body armor - does Chitcongo allow you to buy it?
ReplyDeleteWhat a collection of tools & fools.
CC
Guns are weapons used to kill. People are the users of guns as a preferred weapon to kill each other for whatever reason. If there are no guns available, killers will use knives, bricks, bats, and whatever they can find to kill a person. Therefore the problem to solve is to get people to respect life and control their urge to kill each other. Treat all people with dignity and respect. Stop treating people negatively based on color of skin. Calling people black and brown makes me sick because it is racist and divisive.
ReplyDeleteHow can it be that no one in a position of authority ever considers just enforcing the hundreds of gun laws we already have?
ReplyDeleteOver 20,000 gun laws nation wide.
DeleteDems have no interest in gun safety. Only confiscation and enslavement.
ReplyDeleteConfiscation is the goal.
ReplyDeleteGun violence is caused by a class of people who are under the influence of street drugs, alcohol, and other chemicals that affect brain functions and behavior. Too many youngsters who are engaged in increasing the murder rate are from homes where their parents are uneducated, uncaring, poor, unskilled, and allow their children to become members of gangs or street kids. Those children are also victims of attending public schools that refuse to provide the type of high quality education to lift them out of their negative environment. Malnutrition is another problem that must be addressed because learning, thinking, and memory skills require a healthy brain.
ReplyDeletePerhaps training programs that focus on prenatal care and parenting skills may help to solve the problem. Work from home would benefit parents because it is difficult to parent children while spending time commuting. Most problems with violence started when mothers returned to work and left children to raise themselves.
Therefore opening up mental health clinics will not solve gun violence, inadequate nutrition, hatred against each other, and so on.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/09/25/for-all-you-murderers-peter-navarro-jabs-cnn-over-mayo-clinic-take-on-hydroxychloroquine-1398881/
ReplyDelete