Violent crime across the nation has risen to levels not seen since the early 1990s, and Americans have demanded that the Biden Administration do something to mitigate these happenings. Conservatives have laid the blame at the feet of soft-on-crime policies as well as what they’ve deemed “woke” district attorneys who are lax in prosecuting criminals. Progressives say that criminal justice reform is needed; they claim that the rising crime rate is due to poverty, environmental factors, and the pandemic.
While both sides recognize there is an issue, only one group is prepared to punish the tool with which only a portion of these crimes is utilized – the firearm.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce new regulations aimed at regulating the sales of parts of firearms that can be bought online, most without any type of background check. These parts are often used to create “ghost guns,” which have no serial number and are often built by the party intending to use them or sell them.
These guns are made using kits that can be procured online. Typically, a person making a privately owned firearm must procure a receiver; some people are using 3-D printers to create these homemade firearms. While a receiver must have a serial number of some type, an “80 percent receiver” need not carry these markings.
Statistically, ghost guns are being seen more and more in crime scenes in larger cities such as San Francisco and in the Pacific Northwest.
The audience applauded as President Biden gave a scalding speech on gun crime. He stated that he wants Congress to ban assault weapons, pass a law on universal background checks, and compared the gun manufacturing industry to the tobacco industry. Biden said that the gun liability law should be repealed. He then announced his new ATF director nominee, Steve Dettelbach.
However, President Biden left out some statistics that are important to the violent crime wave.
According to Pew Research, “suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths,” with 54 percent of all gun deaths in 2020 confirmed as suicides (24,292 in total). The CDC revealed that only 43 percent of gun deaths were homicides, or 19,384 (for 2020).
Factor in the population growth from the 1970s to 2020, and gun deaths only account for 13.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people. In the 1970s, this number peaked at 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people.
In 2020, knives “or cutting instruments” were utilized in 1,739 violent crimes. In 2021, many of the violent crimes occurring in subways in places such as New York City and Oregon involved the use of a knife. (It should also be considered that many of the subway crimes also involved shoving someone in front of a train.)
In 2020, “other weapons not stated” accounted for 983 violent crimes; blunt objects such as hammers were used in 393 violent crimes, and the use of one’s hands was the cause of homicide in 662 violent crimes during 2020.
However, President Biden’s new strategy doesn’t call for banning of any hammers, fists, or knives – simply firearms.
President Biden said in his speech today that anyone with a drill could put together a ghost gun. This isn’t exactly true. Without some knowledge and some mechanical skill, these guns could misfire; it may never even fire at all.
After Biden spoke in the Rose Garden, he turned over the podium to his new ATF appointee. Steve Dettelbach has worked as a District Attorney in Ohio, and he has also previously called for universal background checks as well as a ban on assault rifles.
Biden says he wants Congress to place regulations on gun manufacturers so that that parts of a gun will be sold only after a background check is completed, and they may only be sold by licensed gun manufacturers. Will Congress take up Joe’s directive? This closely divided Congress may treat this proposal as it did Build Back Better.
