highdesert wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 9:59 am A payback to Michael Bloomberg for his $41 million plus donation to the Biden-Harris campaign.

featureless wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 1:44 pm

highdesert wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 9:59 am A payback to Michael Bloomberg for his $41 million plus donation to the Biden-Harris campaign.

Well, that is a lot of money, eh?

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris announced new executive actions on Thursday to address gun violence, an election-year move that builds the president’s legacy on the issue and provides Harris with a fresh opportunity to highlight her leadership as vice president. During a White House event Thursday, Biden is expected to sign an executive order designed to address the trauma inflicted on children by active shooter drills in schools as well as tackle the threat of machine gun conversion devices, which are small devices that can be made with a 3D printer and turn a handgun into a fully automatic weapon. The actions are timed to this week’s one-year anniversary of Biden’s creation of the first-ever office of gun violence prevention — which he launched, in part, to identify additional ways to tackle gun violence from the executive branch without Congress.

The joint Biden-Harris appearance, one of a handful since the president turned his reelection campaign over to her in July, will highlight Harris’ role overseeing the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. It also provides an opportunity for her to lean into her leadership on an issue in her official capacity as vice president while giving her fresh policies to tout on the campaign trail. It’s also a legacy-building exercise for Biden, likely some of his last moves on what has been a top policy priority for his White House, from passing the first gun legislation in 30 years to issuing more executive actions on the issue than any prior administration.

The president’s executive order will establish a task force assigned to deliver a report in 90 days to assess the threat posed by unserialized, 3D printed firearms and machine gun conversion devices. These devices are already illegal under federal law, but law enforcement have reported increasingly finding these devices on crime scenes — and police believe the shooters in the recent Birmingham, Alabama, shooting used conversion devices. On school shooting drills, the president’s move directs the surgeon general and the secretaries of the Education and Health and Human Services departments to develop and publish guidance for schools on how to effectively conduct these drills, while also minimizing unnecessary trauma.

Federal departments and agencies will also announce a range of additional executive actions, including some related to the implementation of the bipartisan gun legislation Congress passed in June 2022 after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.