WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday nominated former federal prosecutor Steve Dettelbach to head the agency overseeing guns and announced that new rules have taken effect to track so-called “ghost guns” — kits that until now were not required to bear serial numbers.
“All of a sudden it’s no longer a ghost,” Biden said. “It has a return address.”
Biden, who has been criticized by gun-control advocates for not doing more to address gun violence in his year in office, invited a California teen who had been shot in the stomach by a ghost gun in a 2019 school shooting while her best friend died of her wounds.
“When I awoke on Nov. 14, 2019, my biggest worry of the day was a Spanish test,” said Mia Tretta, speaking from the podium in a White House Rose Garden showing off rows of blooming tulips. “We spent the morning like any other, laughing and talking. Until we heard a loud pop. It was a gunshot, followed by six more.”
Biden had on hand a demonstration of a gun kit, walking over to pick up pieces that, within a half hour, can be assembled into a lethal weapon. Until now, guns made from kits like these lacked a serial number that would let police trace its ownership in the event of its use in a crime.
“If you buy a couch you have to assemble, it’s still a couch,” he said. “If you order a package like this one over here that includes the parts you need and the directions for assembling a functioning firearm, you’ve bought a gun.”
Biden detailed his administration’s plan to crack down on the weapons. A new federal rule will require the manufacturers of ghost guns to get licensed, run background checks and include serial numbers on their products.
The Justice Department says such privately made guns are expanding in popularity: Law enforcement officials nationally recovered 1,758 in 2016, a number that surged to 19,344 in 2021. Ghost guns were linked to 692 homicide or attempted homicide investigations in that time frame.
Biden also urged, as he has many times previously without success, for Congress to renew a long-lapsed prohibition on assault-style weapons, ban high-capacity magazines and end the protection gun makers from lawsuits filed by the families of gun crime. He added that a lawsuit settlement in the case of parents of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, requires that gun manufacturer Remington to turn over internal papers that could provide critical information about the industry.
“It wasn’t until we saw the internal documents that we really understood what cigarette manufacturers were doing to our kids and our families,” he said. “Now, we may begin to see what gun manufacturers are and are not doing when it comes to making and marketing their deadly products.”
Biden then announced the nomination of Dettelbach, a former U.S. Attorney in Ohio, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His first nominee, David Chipman, was withdrawn amid unanimous opposition from Republicans and a lack of support from moderate Democrats. Dettelbach was unanimously confirmed for the U.S. Attorney job in 2009.
Biden promised to battle gun violence on the campaign trail, and boasted of his work in the 1990s to pass a ban on assault weapons through Congress. But much of his work to enact stricter gun laws has been stymied by Democrats’ narrow majorities in Congress and the defeat of Chipman, a former ATF agent and gun control advocate.
Liberal groups, including Guns Down America and the youth group March For Our Lives, revealed a report card last week handing Biden a D+ for his work on gun control, while praising his work to promote community violence intervention programs.
“One year ago, President Biden stood in the Rose Garden and promised to champion gun violence prevention by issuing executive actions and pushing Congress to pass-life saving legislation,” said Igor Volsky, Executive Director of Guns Down America. “A year later, the President has taken meaningful steps to fund violence intervention programs but has failed to offer or implement a comprehensive vision for reducing all forms of gun violence in America.”
Polling shows most Americans negatively view how Biden has handled gun violence issues.