February 3, 2022
The answer is not to defund the police. That’s what President Biden said today – as he renewed his effort to try and put a stop to the wave of gun violence and violent crime we’re seeing across the country. And you may be seeing in your neighborhood.
How?
Today – the President doubled down on his strategy to curb gun violence. The Justice Department is giving that strategy some teeth with the goal of stemming the flow of firearms to commit violent crimes while also supporting local law enforcement to combat that crime. Whether that’ll be enough to stop this type of crime…we’ll have to wait and see.
But the Justice Department is moving ahead to –
- Direct every US Attorney’s office nationwide to increase resources dedicated to getting repeat gun violence offenders off our streets
- Adding personnel to a multi-jurisdictional task force to crack down on the illegal flow of guns sold in the South and transported to the East Coast and other firearms trafficking routes are being used in this country.
- Launch a national ghost gun enforcement initiative meant to train prosecutors to investigate and legally go after those who use ghost guns to commit crimes
- And also prosecute unlawful and unlicensed gun sellers and dealers who put firearms in the wrong hands by handing guns over without requiring background checks.
Back in July the Justice Department created and launched five new law enforcement strike forces focused on addressing significant firearms trafficking corridors that divert guns to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay area and Washington DC. Since they started their work, the DOJ says the strike forces have opened 540 investigations and taken custody of 31-hundred “crime guns.”
Police forces across the country have received money from the American Rescue Plan meant to hire more officers and community organizations have received money to bolster community violence intervention programs.
Read about the program from the White House here.
