President Joe Biden enacted an executive order on Thursday aimed at reducing the prevalence of 3D-printed firearms and machine gun components, while also enhancing school shooting preparedness drills.
This executive order establishes an “Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force,” which is tasked with submitting a report to the White House within 90 days. This report will assess the risks associated with 3D-printed machine gun parts and firearms, as well as propose measures for federal authorities to mitigate the distribution of these devices. Additionally, the order instructs various agencies to enhance the protocols for shooter drills in educational institutions, as stated in a White House announcement. The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau (ATF) has noted a staggering 570% rise in full-auto conversion devices from 2017 to 2021 compared to the preceding five-year period, according to the White House.
“In April 2021, one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s first executive actions to reduce gun violence was to address the emerging threat of firearms without serial numbers, often referred to as ‘ghost guns,’” the White House said in the announcement. “Now, President Biden and Vice President Harris are taking additional action on two emerging firearms threats: machinegun conversion devices and unserialized, 3D-printed firearms.”
“Guns are the number one killer of children in America, more than any other cause. It’s sick,” Biden said during the event.
Biden was accompanied by Harris and Randall Woodfin, the Democratic Mayor of Birmingham. He praised both Biden and Harris for their “investments” in American communities, stating that Biden is a “genuine friend” to Birmingham.
“Today we work to loosen the grip that gun violence has on our communities,” Woodfin said. “My community, and I’m sure other communities, are still finding the use of these devices at crime scene after crime scene.”
Recent incidents of gun violence in Birmingham, Alabama, and Apalachee High School in Georgia have once again brought the issue of gun control to the forefront of public discourse. Authorities suspect that the assailants in Birmingham utilized devices known as “glock switches,” which facilitate automatic firing, thereby increasing the likelihood of bystanders being harmed, as reported by CNN.
The rise in the availability of these switches in the United States is significantly influenced by China, with federal agents in Boston recently confiscating over 350 websites linked to the illegal importation of these devices, according to the Department of Justice in September. Frequently, these illicit items are disguised under benign labels, such as “necklace” or “toy,” to evade U.S. customs scrutiny.
In response to the shooting in Georgia, President Biden advocated for a prohibition on “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines,” as well as the implementation of other “common-sense gun legislation,” as stated in a press release.
