US President Joe Biden has announced six executive orders aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the country that he says is an "epidemic and an international embarrassment".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"The idea that we have so many people dying ever single day from gun violence in America is a blemish on our character as a nation," Biden said during remarks at the White House on Thursday.
Family members whose children were killed at the Sandy Hook, Connecticut, school massacre in 2012 and the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 attended the hearing and Biden thanked them for attending, saying he understood it would remind them of the awful days when they got the calls.
He assured them, "We're absolutely determined to make change".
Biden's announcement on Thursday delivers on a pledge the president made last month to take what he termed immediate "common-sense steps" to address gun violence, after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue.
His announcement came the same day as yet another, this one in South Carolina, where five people were killed.
Biden emphasised the scope of the problem: between the mass killings in Atlanta massage businesses and the Colorado grocery store shooting last month, there were more than 850 additional shootings that killed 250 and injured 500 in the US, he said.
His executive orders announced on Thursday tighten regulations on homemade guns and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda he laid out on the campaign trail.
Biden reiterated his call for Congress to act, urging the Senate to take up House-passed measures closing background check loopholes.
He also said Congress should pass the Violence Against Women Act, eliminate legal exemptions for gun manufacturers and ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
"This is not a partisan issue among the American people," Biden insisted.
While Biden asserted that he's "willing to work with anyone to get it done," gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.
Biden was joined at the event by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Most of the actions he announced will go through the Justice Department.
Biden is tightening regulations of buyers of "ghost guns" - homemade firearms that usually are assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine and often lack serial numbers used to trace them.
It is legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop and there is no federal requirement for a background check.
The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule requiring such gun kits be treated as firearms under the Gun Control Act, which would require that the parts be made with serial numbers and that buyers receive background checks.
A second proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilising braces like the one used by the Boulder shooter in a rampage last month that left 10 dead.
The rule will designate pistols used with stabilising braces as short-barrelled rifles, which require a federal licence to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $US200 ($A262) tax.
The department also is publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own "red flag" laws.
Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow the police to confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
The department also will begin to provide more data on firearms trafficking starting with a new comprehensive report on the issue, something the administration says hasn't been done in more than two decades.
The Biden administration will also make investments in community violence intervention programs, which are aimed at reducing gun violence in urban communities, across five federal agencies.
Australian Associated Press
