WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 500 people, some with ties to transnational cartels and organized crime rings, have been charged with gun trafficking and other crimes under the landmark gun safety law that President Joe Biden signed two years ago Tuesday.
A White House report on implementation of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, obtained by The Associated Press, also said that the enhanced background checks under the novel law prevented about 800 firearms sales to people under 21 who would otherwise have been barred from purchasing such weapons.
It highlights that 14 states are using or plan to apply the bill’s funding to better utilize so-called red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to take guns away from people in crisis situations but are often underused or misunderstood. The report also details how 125 school districts in 18 states have been awarded $85 million to identify students in need of mental health care and provide them with access to it.
“It was designed to reduce gun violence and save lives,” Biden said recently of the law. “And I’m so proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made since then.”
The law was a major victory for the Democratic president, and details of its implementation will be announced as he seeks re-election in November. But Biden has also been quick to say the law does not go far enough as he continues to push for stricter background checks and has called for a ban on assault weapons.
Meanwhile, the likely Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has promised that there will be no novel gun laws if he returns to the White House.
Trump has spoken twice this year at National Rifle Association events and was endorsed by the group in May. The former president claimed that Biden has been “trying to take away firearms from law-abiding citizens for 40 years.” His campaign and the Republican National Committee also announced the formation of a “Gun Owners for Trump” coalition, which includes gun rights activists and people involved in the gun industry.
Biden created the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and issued novel regulations that will require tens of thousands more gun dealers across the United States to conduct background checks on buyers at gun shows or other non-store locations. He also pushed to make firearms storage safer.
Biden’s campaign believes gun control is a motivating issue for voters, particularly college-educated women from suburban areas, who could be decisive in several key battleground states this fall. Biden’s campaign and allies have circulated clips of Trump saying “we’ve got to get over this” after an Iowa school shooting in January and telling NRA members in May that he had done “nothing” on guns during his presidency.
According to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive poll of voters, about seven in 10 suburban college graduates who voted in the 2022 midterm elections supported stricter gun control laws, although fewer than one in 10 called them the country’s biggest problem.
Violent crimes have declined in 2023, reversing a spike during the coronavirus pandemic. However, according to a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, firearms are the No. 1 cause of death among children in the U.S. So far this year, 110 children under 11 have died from firearms, and 566 between the ages of 12 and 17. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of children and teenagers killed by gunfire in the U.S. increased 50% between 2019 and 2021.
And in 2024, there were 12 mass killings by firearm, according to data collected by AP. A mass killing is defined as an attack that kills four or more people (not including the perpetrator) within a 24-hour period. The U.S. health secretary on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, sparked by the rapidly growing number of firearm injuries and deaths in the country.
Gun control efforts are often blocked by the courts. The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court expanded gun rights in 2022, changing the way courts should evaluate firearm restrictions. It recently struck down a Trump-era ban on “bump stocks,” the rapid-fire gun accessory used in the deadliest mass shooting in newfangled U.S. history.
But behind schedule last week, the court upheld a gun control law designed to protect victims of domestic violence. The case has been closely watched because of its potential impact on cases challenging other gun ownership laws, including the prosecution of Hunter Biden. The president’s son was convicted of lying on a form to purchase a firearm while addicted to drugs, and his lawyers have indicated they will appeal.
President Biden signed the Gun Safety Act on June 25, 2022, a bipartisan compromise that came after a series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
Gun safety groups praised the law and Biden’s work on Tuesday. “We are committed to building on this momentum and calling on Congress to continue to prioritize gun safety laws to keep our communities safe,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action.
Among the cases tried under the novel law are a defendant sentenced to 23 years in prison for trafficking weapons in gang shootings and another defendant given a two-year prison sentence for illegally smuggling weapons.
In March, five men were arrested in Texas on charges of smuggling military-grade weapons for a drug cartel in Mexico. The charges include gun trafficking and sham purchases, in which one person buys a weapon on behalf of another who is not legally authorized to do so. Hundreds of illegal firearms have been recovered from the streets.
According to the implementation report, the Biden administration has also provided $250 million from the law and other budget funds to nearly 80 organizations nationwide to expand community violence intervention initiatives.
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This story has been corrected to show that the Supreme Court expanded gun rights in 2022, not last year.
