Joe Biden issues order strengthening gun background checks

President Joe Biden said his order is aimed at 'moving us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation'.

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order aimed at increasing the number of background checks required to purchase guns.

Biden issued the order that also promotes more secure storage of firearms on Tuesday in Monterey Park, where a gunman earlier this year shot 11 people dead after a Lunar New Year celebration.

The executive order stops short of requiring universal background checks. It instead directs Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify the meaning of being ‘engaged in the business’ of firearm sales.

Biden said his order is aimed at ‘moving us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation’.

In addition, the order instructs federal agencies to promote using ‘red-flag’ laws which allow law enforcement officials, family members and even doctors to petition a court to take away a person’s firearms for up to one year if they suspect the individual poses a threat to themselves or others.

It also calls on the directs the Pentagon to ‘develop and implement principles to further firearm and public safety practices through the Department of Defense’s acquisition of firearms’.

Biden was welcomed to Los Angeles at the airport by Brandon Tsay, 26, who took a semiautomatic pistol away from the gunman who shot a total of 20 people in Monterey Park in January.

The president addressed the shooting, which was one of the worst massacres in California history.

‘I’m here with you today to act,’ said Biden at a Boys & Girls Club in Monterey Park. ‘Today, I’m announcing another executive order that will accelerate and intensify this work to save more live, more quickly.’

Biden met with the victims’ families and first responders from the day.

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