President Joe Biden has taken “more steps than any other Administration in its first year” to reduce gun violence, according to a White House blog post published Monday, March 28. The title, “Taking on Gun Crime and Violence with a Whole-of-Government Approach,” promises a full-court press to end what Team Biden calls “our gun violence epidemic,” but has he really done more than any president before – and are his actions saving lives?
Between the recent blog post and a slightly older statement titled “Fact Sheet: President Biden’s Historic Actions to Make Our Communities Safer by Reducing Gun Crime,” released March 1, the White House claims numerous first-year accomplishments for the chief executive, but it just doesn’t pass the sniff test. Perhaps Biden has done more talking and taken more “Executive Actions,” but if it’s anything but virtue signaling, then the results are what matter. Not the speeches.
Paying the Problem Away
President Biden asked for “a historic $5 billion” across the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for community violence intervention in the Build Back Better Agenda. But guess what – BBB went bust. He “continues to urge Congress to act” on his $300 million budget request to double the DOJ’s Confidentiality Opportunities for Peer Support (COPS) community policing grant. The Build Back Better Act also would include $1.5 billion for grants to help formerly incarcerated folks feel like they don’t have to return to a life of crime. Those are a lot of dollars that haven’t actually been appropriated yet. This isn’t an impressive resume of accomplishments; it’s a wish list.
That said, the president has signed off on a good deal of money for programs aimed at reducing crime. Last year, HHS awarded almost $1 billion to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Assuming the system works and isn’t abused, that helps victims – certainly a positive outcome – but it doesn’t affect crime. There’s another $25.5 million in Young Adult Reentry Partnership grants for people who left school early, a little over $100 million for students to work while not in school, and $85.5 million to help folks “transition out of the criminal justice system and connect with quality jobs.” Another $350 billion from the American Rescue Plan could be used to hire police officers, but much of the sum was also used to hire school nurses, counselors, and social workers.
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A few of those uses could lead to a decrease in crime in the future; certainly students, dropouts, and released convicts who spend their free time working rather than being bored – and who have income without resorting to crime – have less time and fewer excuses for criminal behavior. While the COPS brag doesn’t apply, as the increased funding hasn’t been approved by Congress yet, the Biden administration did spend money on the existing program in 2021. Why didn’t the White House boast of that?
Maybe it’s because Biden’s numbers so far aren’t terribly impressive. For that matter, even the $651 million he requests for 2022 doesn’t compare to many years under Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama. His first-year outlay in 2021 was $386 million. That’s the largest number since 2011, when congressionally directed spending (more commonly referred to as “earmarks”) was banned. That prohibition was lifted in – you guessed it – 2021. Barack Obama’s first year of COPS funding was $1.55 billion. Bush’s was $1.04 billion. Clinton’s was $1.3 billion. Joe Biden has a lot of catching up to do if he intends to impress anyone with that program.
Repeating, Begging, and Stealing
A good deal of the “work” featured in the White House blog post or the earlier statement is either repeated information worded differently enough that it sounds unique, promises for the future – if, that is, Congress and state legislatures would only play ball – and stealing credit for the work of others.
The administration touts New York City’s Gun Violence Strategic Partnership, presenting it as if this is some major accomplishment on Biden’s part. It isn’t. It was Mayor Eric Adams’ idea, and it came after the city-state agreement announced by New York Governor Kathy Hochul January 21. “I came to the president with a bold agenda, and together we are delivering the safety New Yorkers and Americans need and deserve,” the mayor announced in February 2022. For one, that isn’t quite within the president’s first year – but let’s be generous. The program focuses on attacking trafficking in cities with high gun violence through strike forces, though exactly how well it will work remains to be seen. For right now, the threat of enforcement to come doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect. NYPD statistics reveal that crime was up in general in February 2022 when compared to the same month in 2021. Murder rose 10.3%, robberies by 56%, burglaries 43.9%, felony assaults 22.3%, rape 35.4%, and “hate crimes” – which, presumably, are scattered across the spectrum of actual crimes – went up 189%.
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In late May, the ATF released a rule change targeting pistol braces so that many weapons currently legally owned by Americans would become short-barreled rifles (SBRs). These are a different classification of weapon under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), which requires jumping through the same hoops as owning a machine gun. Since this paperwork and approval process takes time – often a matter of years – those who own qualifying weapons would become felons overnight if they don’t dismantle their pistols. However, this rule is not yet final.
Further future brags by the Biden administration regarded “model” extreme risk protection order (red flag) legislation that hasn’t been adopted, investigation into home gunsmithing technology to restrict DIY weapon manufacturing and eliminate online sales, and a report on firearms trafficking, none of which have actually been delivered yet. The DOJ even enacted a zero-tolerance policy on licensed firearms dealers who violate the law – as if they simply allowed it before! Throughout both documents, each of these points are brought up in new areas, sometimes worded differently, so that it seems as if more has been done.
Biden Did More?
Maybe President Biden has talked more about ending gun violence in his first year than any other president. Perhaps he has spun his “whole-of-government” wheels more, and promised more gun control than any other. But has he actually finished more? Many presidents have outpaced him, whether in regard to passing gun control or actually reducing crime – which rarely go together – and he has some big shoes to fill if he ever hopes to be remembered for either.
That said, this claim isn’t even technically true thanks to the “first year” requirement. In 1993, Bill Clinton’s first year as president, he signed into law the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Despite failing to cure handgun violence, that controversial bit of legislation is the reason purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer today requires a background check – easily the most influential federal restriction to the right to keep and bear arms since the Gun Control Act of 1968.
The president may be able to lay claim to more soundbites and wishlists than any other commander-in-chief in his first year in office, but political promises are often just dust in the wind. And with the 2022 elections fast approaching, his window for legacy-building anti-Second Amendment legislation is just getting smaller and smaller.
~ Read more from James Fite.
