JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – President Joe Biden on Thursday met with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, to release a strategy to cut down on gun violence across the country and save lives.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 45,000 people died from gun-related injuries in 2020. Last year’s numbers haven’t been released yet.
The Biden administration is pushing back against critics who say the president is too soft on crime.
“We have an opportunity to come together and fulfill the first responsibility of government and democracy: keep each other safe,” Biden said.
Biden’s strategy includes:
- Stopping the pipeline of illegal guns sold and trafficked through the U.S.
- Shutting down rogue gun dealers.
- Going after ghost guns, which are purchased as parts and built at home, without serial numbers.
- Biden also wants universal background checks.
- A crackdown on felons who buy guns.
- A budget to hire more police officers and pay for police overtime.
- And he’s asking cities to use money from the American Rescue Plan to invest in crime-fighting technology and programs.
- In the future, he also wants to ban what he calls “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines.”
“This doesn’t violate anyone’s Second Amendment right,” Biden said.
Garland talked about increasing prosecution of illegal gun dealers and those involved in violent crime.
“We will work together to build the public trust that is essential to public safety,” Garland said.
The president’s plan includes bolstering the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
News4JAX spoke with Florida ATF agents who said, in 2021, across the nation, the agency got 548,000 requests to trace weapons and they used a bullet tracing database to investigate 150,000 shootings. And the News4JAX I-TEAM found, in 2020, more firearms were recovered in Jacksonville than in any other city in the state — just shy of 3,000 guns.
Top recovery cities for firearms
| Number of firearms recovered in 2020 | |
|---|---|
| Jacksonville | 2,989 |
| Orlando | 2,451 |
| Tampa | 2,117 |
The president is asking for bipartisan support to save lives.
It’s also worth noting that according to News4JAX data, in Jacksonville, homicides dropped by 28% from 2020 to 2021, while the number of people shot was down 22%.