The first-of-its-kind Office of Gun Violence Prevention is expected to be headed by longtime Biden policy aide Stefanie Feldman. She is touted by the Washington Post as having “worked on the firearms issue for years.”
There is joy on the anti-firearms side. Shannon Watts is affiliated with gun control leader Mike Bloomberg and founded Moms Demand Action. She declared, “If this announcement is, in fact, the creation of a single point of leadership on gun violence in the administration, it is a very big deal for the movement.”
Watts celebrated the coming of the new office as more than symbolic. She said it would be “a governmental focal point dedicated to creating a framework for overseeing national policy, research and resources.”
The Post further reported that representatives from leading gun control groups are deeply involved in the office’s creation. They include Greg Jackson, the executive director for the Community Justice Action Fund, and Rob Wilcox, the senior director for federal government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety.
Gun control zealots have long lobbied Biden to work around Congress and take executive action to curtail gun rights. Many urged a national emergency declaration on gun violence, though it would hardly be targeted at those who perpetrate the violence.
The president’s action followed a letter sent by 117 groups in January demanding the creation of such an office.
The signers also insisted on a $5 billion fund for violence intervention, a blanket ban on foreign-made firearms, and other actions they insisted would bring peace to the streets.
Congress has shown little inclination to curtail Second Amendment rights, and any such measure introduced there is dead on arrival. Therefore, the focus is on executive action from the White House, and that’s apparently exactly what the gun control lobby will get.
Much as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposed 28th Amendment, the new office of gun violence is little more than posturing heading into the 2024 election season.
