United States President Joe Biden is expected to announce new firearm regulations amid continuing pressure to address rising gun violence in the nation and reveal a nominee who would lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE).
The new measures are believed to be designed to contain the use of privately-made weapons, said people familiar with the matter. The new regulation on what authorities call "ghost guns," which are unregulated and untraceable weapons made from kits, aims to address the critical gap in the government's ability to monitor and track them.
Ghost Gun Regulations
Furthermore, the Democratic leader is expected to name Steve Dettelbach, who is a former U.S. attorney from Ohio, as his nominee to lead BATFE as soon as Monday, said one official. Biden's previous nominee was forced to withdraw from the nomination due to opposition in the Senate.
The new order comes as gun violence and crime in the United States have seen an increase in frequency. The situation has put the White House under pressure to address the issue and Biden is expected to unveil new steps on guns in a public event scheduled on Monday afternoon, as per CNN.
Biden's new measure has been making its way through the federal regulatory process for nearly a year. For months, gun safety groups and Democratic lawmakers in Congress have been urging the Justice Department to finish the rule. However, the measure would probably meet heavy resistance from gun groups and draw litigation in the following weeks.
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The Senate's top Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York on Sunday implored the administration to move faster with passing the measure. In a statement, the official said that it was "high time" for a ghost gun exorcism before the proliferation peaks and to prevent more people from getting hurt or killed.
According to Fox News, Schumer said that his message was fairly simple, which is no more waiting on the proposed federal rules. He argued that ghost guns were too easy to build, too hard to trace, and too dangerous to ignore.
Rising Number of Gun Violence
The Senate majority leader's call for a crackdown on ghost guns came after a staggering surge in seizures of the DIY weapons in New York City. He argued that the untraceable firearms more often than not end up in the wrong hands, including the Bronx teen who is charged in a shooting on Friday that resulted in the death of a 16-year-old girl and the injury of two others.
Statistics from the New York Police Department (NYPD) showed that there was roughly a 351% increase in the number of ghost guns recovered by police officers this year. Authorities said that at least 131 of the makeshift firearms were seized between Jan. 1 and Wednesday, which is a massive jump from only 29 in the same period last year.
Schumer said that the issue of ghost guns was haunting all of New York, forcing him to call on the federal government to place rules that would classify "partially complete" frames and receivers as firearms. This would subject them to gun regulations that include background checks and serial numbers, the New York Post reported.
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