President Joe Biden will announce the creation of the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention on Friday, fulfilling a key demand of gun safety activists as legislation remains stalled in Congress, according to two people with direct knowledge of the White House’s plans.
Stefanie Feldman, a longtime Biden aide who previously worked on the Domestic Policy Council, will play a leading role, the people said.
Greg Jackson, executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, and Rob Wilcox, the senior director for federal government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety, are expected to hold key roles in the office alongside Feldman, who has worked on gun policy for more than a decade and still oversees the policy portfolio at the White House. The creation of the office was first reported by The Washington Post.
Next time a Republican takes office they will set this department’s budget to 1 dollar, just like the consumer protection bureau. It will get to the point that parts of the government will only work when dems are in charge.
deleted by creator
That’s “Starve the Beast” politics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast
Everyone should know what this is and how and why it is done.
In short, Republicans want to starve a department of funding to a level below which they can not properly function. Then they can claim that agency isn’t doing it’s job, so we might as well cut it altogether. They are trying to set up these departments and programs to fail and can come in and claim they are saving taxpayers money. What they are really doing is making it easier for corporations and the ultra rich to pollute or side-step their tax obligations. Kind of hard to claim someone is a tax cheat if there isn’t an IRS to audit them. Same with the EPA, Amtrak, USPS, DoEducation, and a host of other departments.
Once again, we can thank Reagan for this mess.
They’ve got to earn their $16 million a year from the gun lobby by doing even less than they did back before Sandy Hook, when it was only $8 million a year.
Isn’t it just grand to look back on the last 365 days of gun violence and see what figures people put on it? Tens of thousands of lives. Hundreds of them children.
The pro-gun crowd will bury them just to avoid inconvenience. They don’t want to wait for their guns, pass a background check, demonstrate they know how to responsibly handle them or store them securely.
Sure, they’ll jerk themselves raw as they publicly congratulate themselves for doing any of those, but the moment someone wants to turn “suggestions” into “laws”, they’re all too happy to be represented by overweight men stuffed into plate carriers.
For the politicians and manufacturers though, it’s strictly business.
Republicans get $16 million a year and a bloc of voters who will tolerate all manner of horrific acts, as long as they happen to other people.
In return, they insist that we mustn’t change a thing until every man, woman and child in America has been completely cured of mental illness, to a level far beyond current medical science, so perfectly that nobody ever relapses and all in the few days it takes to load up on semi-automatic firearms.
Not only can you buy their souls, they’re not even that expensive.
Why would Republicans axe more money for cops? This has always been what they wanted
deleted by creator
“Banana Republican” while Dementia Joe didn’t even leave his basement to run.
What are they going to do that the ATF and FBI don’t already do?
Prevention of gun violence isn’t exactly the remit of either of those agencies. The ATF focuses on the tracking of and illegal sales of guns while the FBI focuses on crimes committed with them (and other crimes, of course). Neither of those are about prevention of gun violence.
A separate agency that can focus more on the social issues that are behind gun violence could act in many ways that neither of the other two agencies could while not having to worry about drawing focus or manpower, from how those two agencies operate.
They could provide free firearm training courses and encourage young people to take them. Which would help with accidents.
A separate agency that can focus more on the social issues that are behind gun violence
I doubt they are going to give this agency the necessary tools to lower poverty and the wealth gap, lower the rate of single parents, increase healthcare affordability, increase housing production, and destroy the culture of degrading those who try to better themselves. These are the issues that cause people to be unhappy enough with life they chose to murder. Happy individuals with productive lives don’t generally decide murder is the correct course of action.
It hardly seems sensible for a government agency designed to prevent gun violence to then go and train people to use them.
All gun use is inherently violent.
If your goal is to lower deaths from cars, would it “hardly seem sensible for a government agency to train people to use them”? Training lowers accident rates.
There’s probably a few other things that can be done but that’s generally correct. Frankly, the solution to gun violence is to remove all guns. Make the situation impossible. That won’t happen and neither will appropriate legal restrictions to ownership with the country the way it is, so training and other preventive measures are the next best thing.
We’re not talking about cars here, however. We’re talking about guns. All gun use is violent, so the logical way to reduce gun violence is to not use them at all. The same isn’t true for cars.
Thanks for the false equivalency, though.
Maybe not encourage guns to be sold to cartels, unlike the ATF Fast and Furious program. It was supposed to track firearms going south, but just lost them.
Operation Wide Receiver under GWB did the same thing and had the exact same issues. The thought behind the programs is not bad. Implementation was fucking terrible though.
I do love how Republicans flipped shit about Fast and Furious but none of them had any qualms with GWB’s operation.
deleted by creator
Actually collect data on police shootings?
People said the same thing about DHS when it was spawned forth into being. Maybe not a great comparison, but I feel like this one has a little more purpose to it other than job creation.
Now you’re just scaring me.
deleted by creator
It’s a nice thought.
To go along with all the prayers.
An office of prayers is strictly forbidden by the first amendment.
“After months of research, we have written a 1000 page report proving the solution is fewer guns.”
Republicans: “MORE GUNS! ARM EVERYONE!”
Removed by mod
Why does America have some of the highest rates of gun violence in any of the developed countries, Blamemeta?
I don’t know SMCF, why specifically ‘gun’? Is the tool more important than the act?
Are you able to answer the question I asked or not?
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
I asked about gun violence on a thread about Biden creating a federal office of gun violence.
I’ll assume you are unable to answer the question, Blamemeta.
Removed by mod
From the WaPo article:
The new office will report up through Stefanie Feldman, the White House staff secretary and a longtime Biden policy aide who has worked on the firearms issue for years, the people said. Feldman previously worked on the Domestic Policy Council and still oversees the gun policy portfolio at the White House.
So it’s going to be a purely policy role within the White House? Well that’s disappointing. I was hoping it was going to be somewhere in HHS, or at least DoJ.
That would likely require explicit funding. Yes this is just to make a headline. He could actually direct the ATF to follow up on straw purchases, improve data sync with NICS and other federal databases if he wanted to do something meaningful.
3, 2, 1…here come the gun nuts…
As expected every time guns are brought up in a political context, the comments are already full of people talking past each other while ignoring the real issues.
It is exactly as difficult to get rid of guns in this country as it would be to get rid of the electoral college, and the electoral college has done thing like lead directly to the covid pandemic being far worse than it had to be because Trump fired the guy we had in position to warn everyone if China leaked a pandemic.
Instead of discussing that, all you’re going to find in a thread like this is back and forth about getting rid of guns (nearly impossible) or decrying the department as redundant (the DHS is proof this is also meaningless) or the like.
It definitely feels like a lost cause banning guns. It’s part of the culture. When we banned guns in Australia after one single mass shooting, I don’t believe Australia had nearly as much of a gun loving culture. It was still seen as a tool in the country side for hunting and such. I don’t know the answer to changing culture. It’ll take generations possibly. Smoking was seen like an everyday thing in the 60s. Now it’s disgusting. Perception can change eventually.
If something is not realistically achievable in the short term, that means we shouldn’t be able to talk about it?
I disagree. If we limit discourse only to the immediately achievable we stop talking about how things should be, and how best to get there. Sometimes change happens overnight, sometimes it takes decades. It’s worth talking about.
Most people are not asking to “get rid of guns.” Most people are asking for restrictions that keep people safe, not least our school children, and a ban on military-style weapons like AR-15s. That’s not unreasonable nor impossible.
You claim that no one is asking to get rid of guns, and then call for a ban on an entire class of firearms (and a vague one, “military-style weapons”, which is intentionally vague and demonstrates a lack of knowledge of firearms).
Make a decision please.
The 2nd Amendment was not written with AR-15s or any other military-style weapons in mind. A full ban on those weapons is reasonable and possible.
With that logic, the 1st amendment doesn’t apply to the internet, phones, television, photos, or video.
Your understanding of the second amendment (and firearms in general) is flawed, and any attempt to disarm the working class shall be frustrated. It will not happen. A ban on rifles is not reasonable, it is class warfare.
It’s also an attack on disabled and women.
It’s not flawed. Your understanding is flawed. You live in fear. Don’t live in fear.
I don’t live in fear. I hope to never have to use my tools, no matter what they are. But just how I need my socket set when my car breaks down, I have my firearms if I need to defend myself or my loved ones.
Hahahaha.
Yet more ignorance.
You could own canons when it was written, and fully automatic weapons already existed.
It was written with exactly the change in tech in mind, and if you had bothered to educate yourself (by reading things like Federalist Papers or the Adams-Jefferson letters) you’d know this. But you’d rather operate from ideology and hubris.
This is such a clown argument. Canons cannot be used to kill 60 people and wound more than 400 from a hotel room in Las Vegas. Get real!
Hahahahaah. Thanks for the chuckle!
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Semi-automatic and automatic.
deleted by creator
The difficult problem is the ones who decide to do bad things with guns, don’t exactly have much respect for the law. Pass whatever restrictions you want, if someone wants to shoot anyone badly enough, they will find a way.
But that’s not really a good reason to not have regulations. “People are going to steal your shit if they want to badly enough” does not mean theft shouldn’t be a crime.
Sure, they may find a way, but if it’s harder to find that way, there’s a chance they’ll either change their minds or use a tool that’s less lethal and will kill fewer.
The US has a unique problem in the Western world, and what sticks out is access to weapons.
deleted by creator
Yeah, I’d call AR-15s military style. It’s ok if you don’t. No matter what you call them, it’s idiotic that random people run around with them.
deleted by creator
I consider semi-automatic and automatic firearms to be military style.
By “random” I just mean anyone who can pass a background check. The easy access to weapons is what stands out in American society when it comes to gun violence.
deleted by creator
Every gun shoots lead all the same. It doesn’t matter what “style” it is.
So it shouldn’t matter if people are only allowed to own black powder muskets then, right?
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
I though we were switching over to environmentally friendly tungsten?
deleted by creator
Some weapons, including AR-15s, are specifically designed to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Makes a big difference.
Wait, who’s talking about banning guns? Nobody in the thread has mentioned it and I did try to read all the comments. I even did a quick ctrl+f for keywords just to make sure and found nothing.
deleted by creator
Where exactly? If that comment isn’t older than my comment or comes as a result of the person I was replying to planting the seed I’m probably gonna block you
deleted by creator
So where exactly?
You sure you read the comments? Lmao.
Great idea, but I do not have faith that this will be well executed.
If the democrats had the same drive as their republican counterparts, this would be a better country.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
The only reason the GOP is as powerful as it is is because the Dems are so fucking terrible at playing the damn game. Pick your battles. Good idea or not - Biden is trying real hard to lose this election.
The biggest single-issue voting blocks in the county are pro-lifers and pro-gun people. Even if most people want stronger gun control and better abortion access, they don’t base the entirety of their votes on those positions. It’s not like Dems or moderates who are anti-gun would vote for Trump or Biden were pro-gun.
The only time being pro gun-control is advantageous is in a primary, which Biden doesn’t have to worry about. In the general election it’s entirely detrimental to a campaign.
about time
deleted by creator
Pedophiles don’t care about the law either it seems, so would you say we should just get rid of all laws pertaining to that?
Its already illegal to murder, so adding additional crimes to gun possetion is essentially a proxy for making murder double illegal. If a criminal doesn’t care about murder laws, possession laws aren’t going to bother them.
Your metaphor would be more like saying: pedophilia is already illegal, make giving candy to children who aren’t yours with intent to abduct illegal too. Essentially make pedophilia double illegal (in this instance).
Its already illegal to murder
Why? Murderers don’t care about the law
So we can charge them and put them away from society. Making a crime more illegaler and increasing the punishment for it doesn’t reduce crime rates.
So we can charge them and put them away from society.
What do you mean? I thought criminals could simply ignore all laws, are you saying it’s possible for laws to have some effect after all?
They can ignore them and still murder yes. It happens in the 10s of thousands per year in the US alone. Once you’re caught the law lets society punish these individuals, but the law didn’t pervent the murder. Ergo making it double illegal won’t help.
Okay okay.
So. Instead of inserting layers of metaphors and renaming a gun ban to “making murder double illegal”, what if we just called it what it is, “making gun ownership illegal”
You are taking it for granted that it will always definitely be okay to own a gun as long as you don’t commit a crime with it. What we are discussing currently is whether ownership should be a crime in and of itself. On the most fundamental level, do you think a law directly targeting gun ownership could possibly have any effect?
And before this turns into a whole thing, it may come as a shock for you to learn that I do not personally support such a ban. The article you listed says in quite plain language that higher wages and better opportunity is what decrease crime, after all. The only thing I take issue with right now is the ludicrous assertion that the law has no effect on “criminals” because they will simply break the law.
I can guarantee you a gun ban would reduce the number of guns, and the strategy of trying to gaslight people into believing it wouldn’t is fundamentally ineffective. If you support ownership then you should want to nip these arguments in the bud as well, as they’re only going to backfire
deleted by creator
If the Dems would drop their anti-gun fight, they would win every election in a landslide and we wouldn’t have the ridiculous government we have now.
EDIT: Lemmy and guns in a nutshell right here.
If Americans would stop fetishizing guns to the point of sacrificing children to the altar of their bang-bang toys, we could actually have a respectable society.
CDC counts gun and vehicular deaths at about the same, year in and out. Thing is, I can avoid suicide (43% or so), bad people and places. I cannot avoid random people killing me on a stroll or a drive.
Where’s your passion for dealing with death on the road? Because guns don’t scare me a bit. Driving does.
deleted by creator
Hopefully he can stay awake and read the teleprompter, and do exactly as he’s told.
Weird, I read an article on Breitbart today saying he’s the most dangerous man in America, ever.
Shit if the conservative freaks actually understood the reality of the situation.
What is the reality of the situation, Shadywack?
Biden’s no danger, the 1%'ers he works for is, just like every other puppet that gets
electedselected.deleted by creator
Bernie Sanders, and the superdelegates can fuck right off along with the party rules that make it such a cunty system.
I see where the wack part of your name comes from.
I guess I’m wack for disliking both Trump and Biden. I must not exist in this universe.
Your words, not mine.
I was commenting more on your theory but I won’t tell you how to think.
Honest question: has he ever fallen asleep at the job? Because it seems that Trump came up with the moniker to slander him and everybody started pretending that he had
Everytime I see footage of him lately, he doesn’t know where he is, where he’s suppose to be, and he’s obviously asking what he’s suppose to do.
deleted by creator
Holy shit, you’re right 😂
Which mountain of videos on Youtube would you like first? The ones from CNN or all the right wing nutjobs channels like “Don’t walk, run”?
Here’s a good CNN video where Anderson Cooper is salty that Republicans are calling it out, but are we seriously pretending that it’s normal for Presidents to parrot whatever shit gets handed to them?
deleted by creator
If only anything we said or did mattered, and we could’ve had a quality candidate actually win nominations for either party. I know where I was, and that was actively campaigning for Sanders only to watch the superdelegates fuck us all over despite him leading in popular votes.
We watched it happen on the Republican side too back in 2008 with Ron Paul. So I don’t think it really matters where any “normal people” are when we get fuckheads like Trump and absent minded grandpa’s like Biden. It seems like we already knew, and picked the right candidates, and just get fucked over anyway. 'Merica
deleted by creator
Can you link to all this footage?
I sure can, the question is can you accept that the last two Presidents are dipshit puppets?
Receipts first, please
Here’s a good one, https://youtu.be/aL-wyLLzuYA?si=Sv1lcbcuc8GsFNzX
bumbling, clueless, and barely knows where he even is, and besides he just fucking looooooooooooooves China, I’m surprised we don’t see the shape of Xi Jin Ping’s dick embossed in one of his cheeks he sucked that dick so hard.
Wait, what? What is this about? I’m asking about all this “recent footage” of the guy sleeping on the job and all I get is some biased YouTuber really stretching the truth and blatantly misrepresenting pieces of footage for what could have many interpretations about him. I could gather footage of most world leaders alive who have fumbled, tripped, or randomly paused mid-speech, edit it and make them look really dumb. But all I’m seeing is that what you’re accusing Biden of is simply not true and that it comes from Trump. The topic is the moniker “sleepy Joe” in case we forgot what we’re talking about.
Listen, I’m not here to take the man’s side–he’s not even my president. But you guys really seem like you get off on making things up about him for the sake of it. Let’s be grown ups and speak about things that have actually happened instead of falling for the lying orange man’s circlejerk. Why is Biden “sleepy”? My question was dead-simple.
deleted by creator
