Gun-trade bad actors on notice, Biden says; city crackdowns part of proposal

Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Joe Biden leave the state dining room at the White House on Wednesday after announcing new initiatives to deal with gun violence and crime.
(The New York Times/Doug Mills)
Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Joe Biden leave the state dining room at the White House on Wednesday after announcing new initiatives to deal with gun violence and crime. (The New York Times/Doug Mills)

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden announced new efforts Wednesday to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, declaring that the federal government is "taking on the bad actors doing bad things to our communities." But questions persist about how effective the efforts can be in what is expected to be a turbulent summer.

Crime rates have risen after plummeting during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, creating economic hardship and anxiety. Though overall crime was down last year, according to FBI data, the murder rate rose about 25% and violent crime about 3%.

Biden's plan focuses on providing money to cities that need more police, offering community support and most of all cracking down on gun violence and people supplying illegal firearms.

"These merchants of death are breaking the law for profit," Biden said. "If you willfully sell a gun to someone who's prohibited, my message to you is this: We'll find you, and we'll seek your license to sell guns. We'll make sure you can't sell death and mayhem on our streets."

But there are also tricky politics at play, and Biden's plan shows how few options the Democratic president has on the issue.

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The steps he outlined are aimed at going hard after gun dealers who break federal law and establishing strike forces in several cities to help stop weapons trafficking. He also said he would seek more money for the agency that tracks the nation's guns.

The Biden White House sees a political advantage in focusing on gun control as a way to stem the violence. The issue polls well among Democrats and independents, as opposed to stiffening sentences or backing aggressive policing tactics, policies favored by conservatives.

But the rest of his new strategy boils down mostly to suggestions for beleaguered localities. He's encouraging cities to invest some of their covid-19 relief funds into policing and pushing alternative crime reduction steps such as increased community support and summer jobs for teenagers -- often both targets and perpetrators of violence.

But it's voluntary.

The president has been clear that he is opposed to the "defund the police" movement, which has been effectively used against other Democrats to cast them as anti-law enforcement.

"This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement," said Biden, who noted that "crime historically rises during the summer, and as we emerge from this pandemic the traditional summer spike may be even more pronounced than it usually would be."

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But he's also trying to boost progressives' efforts to change policing after a year of demonstrations and public anguish sparked by the killing by police of George Floyd and other Black people across the country.

Biden will try to do both at once. But Republicans quickly tried to portray his measures as government overreach and linked them to efforts to rein in policing.

"I think a lot of it ties back to this whole 'defund the police' movement and some of the disruption we had in civil society last year," Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, said on Fox News. "And I think that's part of, when you start undermining that basic foundation, you start breaking apart the bonds that hold us together and that's why you see an increase in crime."

Biden announced a "zero tolerance" policy that would give no leeway to gun dealers who fail to comply with federal law -- their licenses to sell would be revoked on a first offense.

Biden will direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to seek to revoke licenses from gun sellers the first time they are caught willfully selling a weapon to a person who is not permitted to have one, neglecting to run a required background check or ignoring a federal request to provide trace information about a weapon used in a crime. The policy attacks a source of guns used in crimes, which in some instances can be traced to sloppy or irresponsible dealers, experts say.

The Justice Department is also launching strike forces in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to help take down illegal gun traffickers.

The president has already announced a half-dozen executive actions on gun control, including going after kits that allow buyers to assemble firearms that lack serial numbers for tracking and often are purchased without background checks, commonly called "ghost guns."

In May, the Justice Department released a draft of the rule, which would require retailers to run background checks before selling kits that allow someone to readily make a gun at home, and it would force manufacturers to include a serial number on a firearm's "frame or receiver" -- the primary structural components of a gun -- in easy-to-build kits. Serial numbers help the ATF trace guns used in crimes.

Biden also instructed the Justice Department to create a template that states can use to enact red-flag laws, which allow judges to seize firearms from people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others. And he ordered a repeat of a landmark 2000 gun-trafficking study that was instrumental in helping police determine the source of guns used in crimes.

Legislation to expand background checks has so far stalled in the Senate after the House passed it in March, even though Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed then that the Senate would hold a vote on the bill.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been negotiating for weeks with individual Republicans to see if there is legislation that could win enough votes for passage. One option is to narrow the scope of the House bill and expand background checks only to commercial sales like gun shows. Most Republicans oppose regulating private sales between individuals, as the House bill would do, but some have said they would support tougher regulation of gun shows.

Police officials have said they are struggling with increasing crime and continued tensions between police and communities; some say their calls for support aren't answered as they take the blame for the spike. Biden noted that $350 billion of the $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package can be used by cities to hire law enforcement officers, pay overtime, prosecute gun traffickers and invest in technology to make law enforcement more efficient.

While crime is rising -- homicides and shootings are up from the same period last year in Chicago; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Portland, Ore.; Baltimore; Baton Rouge; and Houston -- violent crime overall remains lower than it was a decade ago or even five years ago. Most violent crimes plummeted during the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic, as people stayed indoors and away from others, then started creeping up last summer.

It all comes against the backdrop of the national debate on policing and racism -- and as a police reform bill is being crafted in Congress.

As a senator, Biden wrote several major anti-crime packages, including a 1994 bill that contained provisions now viewed by some as an overreaction to the crime spikes in the 1980s and 1990s. Critics say those bills helped lead to mass incarceration of Black Americans, and Biden's involvement became an issue in his 2020 campaign.

Biden has expressed second thoughts about some aspects of the legislation. But he and his allies still point to the law's provisions to address domestic violence, ban assault weapons and finance community policing.

LITTLE ROCK CRIME

Little Rock has struggled with rising violent crime this year. As of June 14, violent crime was up 13% in the city over 2020, which set a decade high for Little Rock.

In May of this year, the city saw 405 violent crimes, surpassed only by June 2020 in the number of violent crimes in a single month over the past decade.

Mayor Frank Scott said in a statement Wednesday that the city already has violence intervention listed as a proposed Board of Directors item and welcomes the additional federal support.

"Public safety remains the top priority in Little Rock, and violence intervention is a part of our plan for the American Rescue Plan funding that will be proposed to the Board of Directors," Scott said. "I am grateful to President Biden and Congress for approving this funding as Little Rock exits the pandemic and continues to address gun violence."

Little Rock police have pursued community policing as a way to decrease violence in the city by promoting conflict resolution and making officers known in the community.

Police spokesman Mark Edwards said Wednesday that he is unaware of any new community policing programs created in the department using federal funding.

"I haven't heard about any other new programs, but it would not be out of the realm," Edwards said. "I pretty sure we're open to all possibilities."

Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo, Alexandra Jaffe, Colleen Long and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; by Annie Linskey of The Washington Post; and by William Sanders of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

President Joe Biden listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during an event in the State Dining room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 23, 2021, to discuss gun crime prevention strategy. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during an event in the State Dining room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 23, 2021, to discuss gun crime prevention strategy. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - In this June 18, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - In this June 18, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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