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President Biden convened a group of federal law enforcement officials and community leaders to the White House on Monday to discuss his administration’s overall strategy to reduce gun crime, saying he did not There was “no one-size-fits-all approach” to tackling gun violence and doubling down on the need to hire more police and tackle illegal guns.
The president on Monday welcomed a number of administration officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, White House lawyer Dana Remus and Home Policy Advisor Susan Rice, as well as mayors of Washington, DC and San Jose, California and police chiefs of Memphis, Chicago, Wilmington, North Carolina and Newark, NJ
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The President welcomed the participants, noting that he and the Attorney General had been “there for a long time”, adding that “it seems that I have been faced with this problem for most of my career”.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach,” the president said. “We know there are things that work, and the first of those that work is to stem the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes.”
The president said this includes “cracking down on holding gun dealers accountable for breaking federal law. This includes the creation by the Department of Justice of five new strike forces to crack down on the illegal gun smuggling down the hall, supplying guns to New York City, Bay Area. ”
“Our strategy includes funding for law enforcement through the US bailout for states, cities and the ability to hire police and pay them overtime in order to advance community policing.” the president said, adding that the administration’s plan will also “invest in responding to community violence”.
“What we want to do is when we know that we are using trusted members of the community and are encouraging community policing more, we can intervene before violence breaks out,” he explained, saying that this has been “the consensus in our experience and our community violence prevention programs have shown to reduce crime in some cities by 60%.
A White House memo sent Monday morning to state and local authorities discussed the need to “get more police on the job,” and urged to use US bailout funding to hire more officers. law enforcement, bringing police forces “above pre-pandemic levels in communities facing increased gun violence associated with the pandemic.”
The president also said the strategy would fund other “life-saving services,” such as mental health and addiction programs, as well as job training and summer jobs.
“It’s going to help prevent crime and support young people, to hit a paycheck, instead of a gun,” Biden said.
The administration’s strategy will also help those formerly incarcerated “successfully reintegrate into society with housing, employment, training and other supports”.
“We know this will help,” the president said. “It will make us all safer.”
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“The US bailout is funding programs to help get vocational training, apprenticeships and work experience so they can gain stability and security and have a chance at a better life,” said the President. “There’s a lot more to my strategy, but it’s at the core.”
He added: “This is about coordinating at the federal, state and local levels.”
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, senior administration officials told Fox News that the contributors to gun violence are multifaceted, so a multidimensional approach is needed to tackle the problem.
An official said the administration plans to provide federal resources, including additional funding from the FBI and ATF to help states and communities reduce gun violence, ARP funding to hire additional police officers and advance community policing; and investments in the prevention of community violence.
The official added that the ATF is attacking arms traffickers through the administration’s “zero tolerance” program, which was announced last month.
The President and Attorney General last month announced a “zero tolerance” policy for willfully breaking gun traffickers, as part of the Biden administration’s strategy to combat what the Justice calls an “astonishing” increase in violent crime.
The “zero tolerance” policy targets federally licensed firearms dealers who “voluntarily” transfer a weapon to a person prohibited from owning one or ignore a tracing request from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF would seek to revoke the dealer’s license after the first violation, a senior White House official said.
At the time, the Justice Department announced that it was launching “strike forces” to target gun traffickers and to provide more transparency on the application of gun dealers’ policies. licensed by the federal government.
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Justice Department “strike force” teams are believed to target illegal gun trafficking in five cities – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC – all from localities where authorities said many weapons used in crimes came from elsewhere. .
The strike force teams will coordinate with ATF and share information with local and state law enforcement agencies about the origin of firearms and where they are used to commit crimes with the aim of breaking down arms trafficking networks.
Meanwhile, senior administration officials told Fox News they were “keen” to work with state and local officials, law enforcement, community violence response experts “whatever. or their policy “.
“This is one of the most bipartisan issues around, and gun violence does not distinguish between being a Democrat or a Republican,” the official said, adding that officials “continue to take action. repeated awareness campaigns “.
“It is important for us to demonstrate that we are eager to engage with the Republican leadership on this important issue,” the official added.
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Biden explained how $ 350 billion from the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief program can be used by cities to hire law enforcement officers, pay overtime, prosecute arms traffickers fire and invest in technology to make law enforcement more efficient. Officials said the Biden administration hoped cities would also choose to use the money for alternatives to policing and to invest in community policing models.
The administration has also targeted “ghost guns” and modified firearms, which are homemade firearms without a serial number that can be used to trace them, making it difficult for law enforcement to determine where. , by whom or when they were made and to whom they were sold.
The Justice Department’s ATF sought in May to update the legal definition of “firearm” in an effort to crack down on phantom weapons.
The administration also said it will support local law enforcement with federal tools and resources to help tackle violent crime in the summer and invest in evidence-based community violence interventions. Administration officials said these investments would expand summer programs, employment opportunities and other services and supports for teens and young adults, as well as help those formerly incarcerated successfully reintegrate. their communities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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