Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Presidential Election 2020. Let’s take a look at his policies in detail and this will hopefully the first of many such diaries where i provide an overview of his policy document and add notes on critique & areas to strengthen
Joe Biden’s Gun safety policy can be found here
Highlights of his policies include:
- Hold gun manufacturers accountable
- Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
- Regulate possession of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act
- Buy back existing assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
- Reduce stockpile of weapons
- Require background checks for all gun sales
- Close other loopholes in the federal background check system
- Reinstate the Obama-Biden policy to keep guns out of the hands of certain people unable to manage their affairs for mental reasons
- Close the “hate crime loophole", "Charleston loophole" and Close the “fugitive from justice”
- End the online sale of firearms and ammunitions.
- Create an effective program to ensure individuals who become prohibited from possessing firearms relinquish their weapons
- Incentivize state “extreme risk” laws
- Give states incentives to set up gun licensing programs
- Adequately fund the background check system
- Establish a new Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse to focus on the connection between mass shootings, online harassment, extremism, and violence against women
- Expand the use of evidence-based lethality assessments by law enforcement in cases of domestic violence
- Put America on the path to ensuring that 100% of firearms sold in America are smart guns
- Hold adults accountable for giving minors access to firearms
- Require gun owners to safely store their weapons
- Prioritize prosecution of straw purchasers
- Notify law enforcement when a potential firearms purchaser fails a background check
- Require firearms owners to report if their weapon is lost or stolen
- Stop “ghost guns.”
- Reform, fund, and empower the U.S. Justice Department to enforce our gun laws
- Direct the ATF to issue an annual report on firearms trafficking.
- Prohibit the use of federal funds to arm or train educators to discharge firearms
- Make federal programs more trauma-informed & Create a network of trauma care centers
- Train health care and other service providers in trauma-centered care
Two of the largest Gun Safety Groups — Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady announced their endorsement to Joe Biden in March 2020.
Where can Joe Biden strengthen his proposals:
- Cory Booker & Elizabeth Warren proposed federal licensing system. Joe Biden doesn’t. My personal PoV is that federal licensing system might scare away neutral supporters. A system like that would be better off being considered in Stage 2. There is more to be done along the way to such goals
- Cory Booker & Beto O’Rouke proposed mandatory buyback. Joe Biden stopped at voluntary buyback.
A detailed critique of Biden’s gun safety plan can be found here.
What policies in Joe Biden’s plans for Gun Safety should be strengthened. I am curious to hear.