Biden to sign executive order increasing background checks for Americans buying guns

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – US President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order that will increase the number of background checks required for American citizens to buy guns and will promote more secure storage of firearms purchased, the Associated Press reports.

The President was expected to announce the order on Tuesday during a speech from Monterey Park, California – the community in which a gunman killed 11 people at a dance hall on January 22 this year.

Nevertheless, AP notes, Biden has limited authority to do much beyond the bipartisan legislation passed by Congress last year after 19 students and two teachers were shot dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022.

The new executive order is expected to shore up government support for communities plagued by gun violence and ensure federally licensed gun dealers carry out the background checks required to hold their license, AP reports.

Biden will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to prepare a public report detailing how gun manufacturers market to minors and use military images to market to the general public, AP said.

“Too many lives have been taken by gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “But [the President] believes we need to do more. You’ll hear him call on Congress to take action and not to stop … that we need to continue.”

Latest Worthy News