President Joe Biden unveiled executive actions on Thursday intended to reduce gun violence.
The new executive actions have two primary aims. One is to reduce the trauma and maximize the effectiveness of school shooting drills.
Stand with Parkland President Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting, said the new order was an important step to make the reality of shooting drills in schools safer and more effective.
"We believe that there should be active shooter drills in schools. We believe they should be age and developmentally appropriate. However we know what happened to our children. We know that some of them weren't in the proper position because the drills weren't done often enough," Montalto told Scripps News. "These drills have to happen to keep our students and teachers safe, but we do support the federal guidelines that will be developed and hopefully remind people that they should be age appropriate and as nontraumatic as possible."
The order's other main objective is to address machine gun conversion devices.
"These machine gun conversion devices, which you can install on an ordinary semi-automatic firearm, turn it into a fully automatic firearm. These conversion devices are already illegal under federal law, but because they are so small and cheap and easy to produce, law enforcement all across the country have told us here at the White House they've said 'we are still finding these at crime scenes all across our cities," said Stef Feldman, director of the Office of National Gun Violence. "'Please help us do more.'"
"We owe it to our victims, we owe it to our victims' families, to have an executive order like this that accelerates resources to not just focus on the possession or use of that conversion device, but more upstream, focus on who is making them. Who's manufacturing them, who's selling them, who's creating them? The 3d printing companies, et cetera," said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin in an interview with Scripps News. "Ushering resources around that in this executive order puts cities, puts states, all in the position to better solve this issue and keep people safe."
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The actions come as President Biden seeks to cement his legacy of addressing gun violence following the passage of the Safer Community Act, the most significant gun control legislation passed in the last 30 years.
The new executive actions also allow the White House to highlight Vice President Kamala Harris' role in leading the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
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The new executive actions arrive during an election season on an issue that galvanizes voters. Overall, a majority of Americans favor more restrictive gun laws as gun violence continues to plague the country.
The new actions also follow Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declaring gun violence a public health crisis in June.
