Tell President Biden to use Emergency Executive Orders to Curb Mass Shootings
Contact the White House via their comment line or web form.
Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend. Resisbot now allows you to send text directly to the White House the same as with Members of Congress. If you use Resistbot or write an email to your elected officials, make sure to use your own words. Copy-pasted emails are discounted by Congressional staff. In-depth, personal stories are most effective.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
We and our children are trapped in a national health emergency. Our right to life has been subordinated to the gun industry’s desire to profit by selling deadly automatic weapons without restraint of any kind while mass shootings accelerate and intensify. We don't believe the Senate will enact an effective bipartisan bill—we still remember the Manchin-Toomey fiasco from 2013. We need bold action from you to give us some breathing room to overcome our national trauma of gun violence against children in school, friends at worship services, and seniors out shopping.
We urge you to:
Declare gun violence a national public health emergency, with the short-term goal of unlocking at least $1 billion in funding under the Stafford Act to be distributed to states upon a governor’s request, to be used for community intervention programming and data collection with a public health lens.
As Vice President Harris called for during her campaign, have the ATF revise the legal definition of federal "gun dealer" to anyone who sells at least five firearms a year for profit, thereby making them subject to federal firearms legislation. Then revoke the licenses of dealers that willfully violate the law, and order federal authorities to pursue them in court.
Order the Surgeon General to study and issue a report on gun violence as a health emergency.
Issue an executive order requiring background checks for all gun sales and prohibiting the sale of semi-automatic weapons to anyone under the age of 21.
Instruct Attorney General Garland to pursue and prosecute interstate and transnational gun trafficking vigorously and with all possible resources.
Background
As President Biden says, here’s the deal: in 2020, the NRA gave 98% of its funding to Republicans and 2% to Democrats . Republicans have prioritized such donations above public safety, as they did after Sandy Hook, and blocked repeated attempts by Democrats to pass gun safety legislation. Therefore, what we need and what is available to us, right now, is for our elected officials to use the power they have. We need bold executive action to protect us from the rising tide of frenzied white supremacist mass shooters.
Yes, there was a time in America when gun rights and gun regulation were not hot-button, highly partisan political issues and the National Rifle Association was for sportsmen and hunters. (You can read about US gun control history in the references below.) But in the 1980s and '90s, Republicans politicized gun rights for partisan gain, and the NRA transformed itself into a gun manufacturers’ lobby for economic gain. Their political strategy was to characterize any regulation of firearms as "gun confiscation" in violation of the 2nd Amendment. The NRA intimidated political candidates with a barrage of ads against any who proposed gun control measures, and so, in 1986, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Firearm Owners Protection Act. It overturned six Supreme Court rulings and numerous regulations, allowing dealers to sell rifles, shotguns and ammunition through the mail, and, eventually, over the internet. It limited federal inspections of firearms dealers while continuing to permit them to sell guns at gun shows, which helped such shows grow in size and popularity. (However, it did ban machine guns, thanks to an amendment slipped in by House Democrats at the last minute.)
Part of Senator Feinstein’s legacy is managing to insert a subsection into the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that banned assault weapons for ten years. When those ten years were up, during George W. Bush’s presidency, Republicans let that ban expire against Democrats’ objections, claiming that it hadn’t had much effect on day-to-day gun violence in America. But once that ban was lifted, mass shootings tripled.
After horrific national tragedies like the Uvalde mass shooting, our whole country cries out for Congress to take action. The Senate’s Democratic majority leader is told to immediately bring gun safety legislation to the floor. When Republicans refuse to pass it, a “bipartisan” team is formed to draft legislation that “both parties can accept.” Republican Senators know that after the passage of time, their failure to pass the compromise bill won’t bring on the same public outcry as the initial “Congress must do something” did. That was the formula after 20 little children were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. We remember a certain Very Important Senator assuring us he could create a bill Republicans would surely sign. After months of negotiation in the Senate, the Manchin-Toomey background checks bill was defeated on April 17, 2013. We remember President Obama’s tears of frustration after that happened.
We agree with the March for Our Lives youth movement for gun sense that the gun violence epidemic, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the HIV pandemic before it, requires a unified national plan with a public health lens. March For Our Lives has presented an excellent plan of action for the Biden-Harris Administration to lead the federal response.
We are also glad that the brave survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings will be leading another nationwide March for Our Lives on June 11, 2022. Gun safety advocates like them will be crucial in driving the 2022 Blue Wave, as they were in the Blue Wave of 2018.
References
Recent News/Commentary
The Supreme Court could soon weaken gun laws in several states, including Mass. | WBUR News 5/27/22
Gun safety groups push Biden to act, but White House looks to Congress | Reuters 5/26/22
LDF Issues Statement Urging Congress to Pass Common Sense Gun Control Measures, 5/25/22
These Gun Reforms Could Save 15,000 Lives. We Can Achieve Them. - The New York Times, 5/25/22
Texas shooting: America is killing itself, as the Republican Party looks the other way, Le Monde, 5/25/22
PolitiFact | Joe Biden said mass shootings tripled when the assault weapon ban ended. They did, 5/24/22
America is losing its soul to guns, but our politicians don't seem to care — Mike Kelly, 5/25/22
A Republican Tried to Introduce a Commonsense Gun Law. Then the Gun Lobby Got Involved, Pro Publica, 5/12/22
Gun Deaths Surged During the Pandemic's First Year, the CDC Reports - The New York Times, 5/10/22
Suggested Executive Action
Our Demands for the Biden-Harris Admin | March For Our Lives
Kamala Harris proposing gun safety measures she'd take as president , 4/23/19
Protecting Our Communities from Gun Violence | Elizabeth Warren, 8/10/19
What Would a National Emergency Over Gun Violence Look Like? - Pacific Standard, 2/11/19
A Few Words on How Executive Power Could Save Democracy, 5/24/22
Gun Control History
A Timeline of Gun Control Laws in The US | Time , April 2019
National Rifle Assn Profile: Totals • OpenSecrets, Donation History by Party 1990-2020
District of Columbia v. Heller, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
A timeline of mass shootings in the US, Reuters graphic, 1999-2021
National Rifle Assn Profile: Donation Summary for 2020 • OpenSecrets
Senate Vote 97 - Defeats Manchin-Toomey Background Checks Proposal | Represent | ProPublica
Active Shooter Study: Quick Reference Guide, FBI, 2014
NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals, NPR, September 2019
Gun Control Advocacy Groups
Our Victories, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
Gun Violence in America | Everytown Research & Policy
Gun Law Navigator , Everytown.org
What are Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines? | Brady