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Biden's Missteps on Gun Policies - FactCheck.org

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In outlining steps his administration would take on gun regulations, President Joe Biden misstated the facts on three existing policies:Biden on April 8 from the White House Rose Garden, announcing actions he would take in an effort to reduce gun violence.The president about background checks at gun shows.Biden, April 8:That’s wrong.&nbsp;In fact, federal firearm dealers must run a background check on a potential buyer at a gun show using the FBI’s , or a similar state system.Biden was referring to intrastate (same-state) private sales between nondealers, which are exempt from background checks under federal law, although such checks are required in some states, as explained in a by the Congressional Research Service. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia require background checks for all gun sales, even those between private parties, the Giffords Center, a pro-gun-control group.In addition to the federal and state background check requirements, federal law requires private dealers to obtain a firearms license and conduct background checks if they engage “in the business of dealing firearms,” which is “defined as repeatedly devoting time and attention to purchasing and reselling guns for monetary gain,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a 2020 that announced three men had pleaded guilty to “unlicensed dealing” at gun shows in Texas.“Hobbyists who sell weapons in one-off private transactions are not required to be licensed or to run background checks,” the ATF said in its release.It is also worth noting that the CRS, in its 2019 report, said “private firearms sales at gun shows … did not appear to be a significant source of guns” for federal and state prisoners convicted of crimes involving firearms.CRS said it reached that conclusion based on two surveys:Advocating so-called “red flag laws” that seek to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, Biden said states that have enacted such laws “have seen a reduction in the number of suicides in their states.”There is some evidence of reduced suicides by firearm in states with red flag laws — also called extreme risk protection orders. But a in 2020 concluded that while a study of the effect of Indiana’s red flag law is “suggestive” that it contributed to a drop in firearm suicides, there is “inconclusive evidence for the effect of extreme risk protection orders on total and firearm suicides.”In his remarks, Biden called on Congress to pass a federal red flag law andthe Justice Department to publish model red flag legislation for states to pass.As of Jan. 1, 2020,and the District of Columbia had some form of red flag laws, according to RAND. But there is wide disparity in how those states implement the law. For example, only law enforcement officials in some states can petition for an ERPO, while other states allow family members or medical professionals to do so. In addition, some states permit ex parte ERPOs, meaning that guns can be confiscated before a person has an opportunity to challenge the order in court. There is also wide disparity between states with regard to how long the orders last. All of those factors can influence how effective those laws are, researchers told us.“These laws allow police or a family member to petition a court in their jurisdiction and say, ‘I want you to temporarily remove from the following people any firearm they may possess because they’re a danger and a crisis. They’re presenting a danger to themselves and to others.’ And the court makes a ruling,” Biden said. “To put this in perspective more than half of all suicides, for example, involve the use of a firearm. But when a gun is not available an attempt at suicide, the death rate drops precipitously. States that have red flag laws have seen a reduction in the number of suicides in their states.”published in 2018 found that Indiana’s red flag law “was associated with a 7.5% reduction in firearm suicides in the ten years following its enactment.” There was a far smaller reduction in firearm suicides (1.6%) in the immediate years after Connecticut passed its own red flag law in 1999, though the reduction increased significantly (to 13.7%) after the state upped its enforcement of the law in the wake of the Virginia Tech mass shooting in 2007., an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Indianapolis and co-author of the study, told us via email, “We have sufficient data from Indiana and Connecticut to make valid inferences, although there are now many states with red flag laws where we need time to measure their effects. In IN and CT, multiple research groups using distinct methodologies have found consistent support showing that red flag laws are associated with reductions in firearm suicide. In Indiana, where firearms are involved in over 60% of all suicides, this decrease in firearm suicide was linked to an overall decrease in suicide. In Connecticut, where firearms are involved in less than 50% of suicides, the decrease in firearm suicides appears to have been generally offset by other means, resulting in no significant changes in overall suicide rates.”In its review of gun studies and the effect of state ERPO’s on suicide, RAND said the Kivisto study was “suggestive” of a reduction in firearm suicide rates in Indiana, but cautioned against generalizing national results based on the laws in just two states.“Although the findings for Indiana’s law are suggestive, considering the strength of this evidence and potential issues of generalizability, we find inconclusive evidence for the effect of extreme risk protection orders on total and firearm suicides,” the RAND report states.Andrew Morral, a RAND senior behavioral scientist who led the RAND project, told us Biden is correct that in some states, suicides went down after red flag laws were introduced.“We, on the other hand, tried to assess whether they went downbecause of thelaw,” Morral said. “That we don’t think is yet proven in a way that even skeptics should have to agree is persuasive.”Kivisto noted that other independent studies of theandlaws also concluded that more suicides by firearm would have occurred if not for the red flag laws.While further studies are warranted on the effect of new red flag laws passed in other states, he said, given the results of the studies to date, “The president said that “gun manufacturers” were “the only industry in America … that can’t be sued” because they’re “exempt.” Gun manufacturers do have protections from civil lawsuits but there are exceptions.As , the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005, as described in , “generally shields licensed manufacturers, dealers, and sellers of firearms or ammunition, as well as trade associations, from any civil action ‘resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse’ of a firearm or ammunition.” But there are six exceptions.They include cases in which a firearm seller was negligent, the transfer of a gun was made knowing it would be used to commit a crime, and manufacturers or sellers violated state or federal law in marketing or selling a gun.For example, the Supreme Courta 2014 lawsuit the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting filed against Remington Arms Co. for the way it marketed the assault-style rifle used to kill 26 people.Editor’s note:FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104.&nbsp;Ask SciCheckQ. Are vaccinated and boosted people more susceptible to infection or disease with the omicron variant than unvaccinated people?A. No. Getting vaccinated increases your protection against COVID-19. Sometimes, certain raw data can suggest otherwise, but that information cannot be used to determine how well a vaccine works.Have a question?

In outlining steps his administration would take on gun regulations, President Joe Biden misstated the facts on three existing policies:Biden on April 8 from the White House Rose Garden, announcing actions he would take in an effort to reduce gun violence.The president about background checks at gun shows.Biden, April 8:That’s wrong.&nbsp;In fact, federal firearm dealers must run a background check on a potential buyer at a gun show using the FBI’s , or a similar state system.Biden was referring to intrastate (same-state) private sales between nondealers, which are exempt from background...

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Eugene Kiely

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