WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will convene governors and state lawmakers at the White House and urge them to help strengthen gun background checks on buyers younger than 21 years old to combat the stunning pace of mass shootings.
Biden, who has failed to convince a divided Congress to pass major national gun reform, said in a Sunday op-ed in USA TODAY that he will call for states to enact laws that provide the federal background check system "access to all records that could prohibit someone under age 21 from purchasing a firearm."
This move and other steps announced in the op-ed coincide with the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. in which a white 19-year-old gunman killed 10 Black people at a supermarket.
Several measures build off the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act - a gun law with limited restrictions that Congress passed last year - and a March 14 executive order Biden signed that seeks to increase the number of background checks during gun purchases.
"America doesn’t have to be a place where our children learn how to duck and cover from a shooter, or scan a movie theater or restaurant for their exit options," Biden wrote.
What Biden wants states to do on guns
- Biden's latest appeal to states on guns looks to strengthen a provision in the federal law passed last year that created enhanced background checks for firearms buyers younger than 21 years old.
- The law requires the background check system to contact state juvenile justice and mental health repositories for records when an individual younger than 21 is attempting to purchase a firearm to see if they're prohibited under federal law.
- But the FBI has found that privacy laws in some states are preventing agencies from responding to the inquiries.
- Biden said the enhanced background checks on buyers younger than 21 have already stopped 160 firearms "getting into potentially dangerous hands."
More on gun background checks
- Federal law requires background checks of individuals who are buying firearms from federally licensed dealers. But background checks are not required during purchases from unlicensed sellers, often at gun shows or online.
- In the March executive order, Biden directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify what it means to be "engaged in the business" of selling firearms to ensure "rogue dealers" are checking the backgrounds of buyers as required by federal law.
- Twenty states and the District of Columbia have state laws that require gun background checks regardless of the license status of a seller.