Biden announces gun control actions

The president unveiled new rules on “ghost guns” — firearms that are assembled at home, which lack serial numbers and are harder to track — among other moves designed to make it harder for unqualified people to obtain dangerous weapons.

Biden also announced David Chipman as his pick to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, although it is unclear how the nominee will fare in an evenly divided Senate. Chipman is a former ATF agent and now a senior adviser to a gun-control group founded by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was severely injured in a mass shooting in 2011.

Biden said his moves Thursday do not relieve Congress of the responsibility to act. He urged lawmakers to take up gun-control legislation, including measures already passed by the House that would require more gun buyers to undergo background checks.

“They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress, but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence,” Biden said. “Enough prayers. Time for some action.”

Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, also urged Congress to pass long-stalled gun measures. “What are we waiting for?” Harris said. “Because we aren’t waiting for a tragedy. I know that we’ve had more tragedy than we can bear.”

Biden’s moves came amid a growing impatience from gun-control activists that the administration has not acted more quickly. Biden promised during his campaign that he would take action to limit gun violence on the first day of his administration, but that fell by the wayside.

Biden has prioritized other issues in the early going, including coronavirus response and economic aid. He suggested recently that he considers gun control less urgent than those immediate crises, one that can be tackled over the long term.

But the issue of gun violence moved vividly the forefront after the two mass shootings, one in Georgia in which eight people died, and another in Colorado, where 10 were killed.

Biden was joined in the Rose Garden by first lady Jill Biden and a number of longtime gun-control advocates, including Giffords, who became a leading anti-gun activist after she survived a mass shooting outside a supermarket. Her…