Array
President Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at increasing gun background checks, bolstering mandates on safe gun storage and redefining who qualifies as a firearms dealer.
Mr. Biden signed the order in Monterey Park, California, a Los Angeles suburb where 11 people were shot to death in January at a Lunar New Year celebration.
The executive order directs Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify the statutory definition of who is engaged in the business of selling firearms. A sweeping bipartisan gun law that Mr. Biden signed last year granted the Justice Department the authority to define who qualifies as a firearms dealer.
Under the order, the administration would likely expand who is qualified as a firearms dealer, which would make more people who sell firearms at venues such as gun shows required to perform background checks on gun buyers.
Mr. Biden said the order moves the nation “as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”
“It’s just common sense to check whether someone is a felon or domestic abuser before they buy a gun,” he said.
Some state Republican attorneys general immediately vowed that they would challenge the order in court. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen accused Mr. Biden of using the order to rewrite the nation’s gun laws.
“This is yet another executive order from the most anti-gun administration in history designed to circumvent the legislative process,” he said.
Others said Mr. Biden is focused on the wrong problem. They argue the nation needs tougher laws to crack down on crime, not targeting lawful gun owners.
