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Washington: President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order on Thursday aimed at helping schools design active shooter drills that are less traumatic for students while maintaining their effectiveness. This initiative reflects the president’s ongoing commitment to addressing gun violence, which he has consistently prioritised during his presidency.
The order directs his administration to investigate the potential trauma caused by active shooter drills for both students and educators. According to Stefanie Feldman, director of Biden’s office of gun violence prevention, the goal is to help schools create drills that “maximize their effectiveness and limit any collateral harms they might cause.”
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Addressing Gun Technologies
In addition to reforming school safety protocols, the executive order seeks to restrict emerging technologies that make guns easier to fire and obtain. This includes the establishment of a task force to examine threats posed by machine-gun conversion devices, which can convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones. The task force will also investigate the rise of 3D-printed guns, which can be easily manufactured from online blueprints and lack serial numbers, making them untraceable by law enforcement. The task force is expected to report back in 90 days, shortly before Biden’s term concludes.
Bipartisan Support for Stricter Gun Laws
Gun violence remains a critical issue in the United States. Despite varying state laws, a significant majority of Americans favour stricter gun regulations. This sentiment is likely influenced by the belief that reducing the number of firearms could lead to fewer mass shootings. Tragically, four people were killed and 17 others injured in a recent shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, described by police as a targeted attack.
As of Wednesday, there have been at least 31 mass killings in the U.S. in 2024, resulting in at least 135 deaths, not including the shooters, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
The executive order has garnered support from gun-control groups. However, it has faced criticism from Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, who labelled it “just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country.”