Written by Andrew Morris
President Biden revealed in a press conference Wednesday guidelines for his new gun control plan.
His primary means of doing so involved the utilization of leftover Covid-19 relief funds to subsidize summer youth programs, police departments, and crack down even further on gun salesmen, creating stricter rules and a zero-tolerance policy for illegal activities. Biden also seeks to mandate detailed and lengthy background checks for any and all people seeking to own a firearm. Furthermore, he instated “strike force” teams, who will go into five cities with exponential increases in crime to assist the police in the apprehension of illegal firearms or “ghost guns” which are unregistered with the government.
While Biden means well, his plans have both pros and cons. The effect of background checks to this degree has very little impact, as the majority of gun homicides come from illegally bought “ghost guns” in the first place, meaning the law’s only effect would be an infringement of the right a legal citizen has to own and use a firearm.
This plan is rooted in the recent growth of violent crime across 2020 and the beginning of this year. Records show that homicides in the first quarter were up by 24% from 2020, and a whopping 49% from the same period in 2019.
Additionally, President Biden seeks to deliver on his campaign promises towards increasingly strict gun control “for the people”, yet the numbers show more people buying guns than ever before. More than 4 million guns were sold in January of this year, reaching a record high since the FBI began recording gun sales in 1999. Furthermore, gun sales increased 40% last year to almost 40 million, equivalent to more than 12% of the US population in a single year.
This growth comes as a result of police defunding after rioters ran amok throughout last year. People have taken heed of growing civil unrest in our nation, taking their safety into their own hands at record levels. CNN reports a substantial rise in gun sales to women and Black Americans, even reporting the statistic that America saw a 40% increase in sales to women since September as compared to last year.
At its current rate, America will buy more than 50 million firearms this year, and as the fear of encroaching civil unrest and peril grows, so too do the number of firearms.
