The Time is Now Coalition Applauds Joe Biden for Initial Actions to End Gun Violence in America : Calls on Congress to Act Now
For Immediate Release
April 8, 2021
Press Contact:
Brady: Liam Sullivan 240-688-1608 lsullivan@bradyunited.org
Community Justice Action Fund: Greg Jackson 202-277-1719 greg@cjactionfund.org
Guns Down America: Brandon Lorenz 414-241-0730 brandon@gunsdownamerica.org
March For Our Lives: Noah Lumbantobing 503-804-9487 noah@marchforourlives.com
Newtown Action Alliance: John Kelley 917-679-6475 jkelley@newtownaction.org
The Time is Now Coalition Applauds Joe Biden for Initial Actions to End Gun Violence in America
Calls on Congress to Act Now
Washington, D.C.-The Time is Now Coalition released the following statement after President Joe Biden announced his initial actions to end the gun violence crisis in the United States.
“The Time Is Now Coalition, a broad group of gun violence survivors, community and gun violence prevention organizations, are excited to see President Joe Biden living up to his commitment of prioritizing gun violence prevention by releasing an initial set of executive actions to end the gun violence crisis in our nation and by nominating David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
We applaud President Biden for recognizing that his administration must tackle all forms of gun violence, particularly community gun violence, which disproportionately impacts Black and Brown Americans. By making a commitment to invest $5 Billion in evidence-based and community driven gun violence prevention and intervention programs in the American Jobs Plan and pushing five federal agencies to direct vital support to these initiatives, President Biden is recognizing the importance of addressing the root causes that fuel violence, and laying a foundation for rebuilding safe and prosperous communities in the months and years ahead.
President Biden’s initial executive actions and his nomination of an ATF director who is committed to properly regulating the firearm industry and cracking down on illegal gun trafficking will undoubtedly save thousands of American lives. We implore the Senate to swifty confirm David Chipman, who is more than qualified to lead the ATF.
During the campaign, President Biden ran on a broad and comprehensive plan and vision for reducing gun violence in the United States and he made a commitment to work with Democrats and Republicans to pass critical legislation to strengthen our nation’s lax gun laws. Today, the President took bold steps in the right direction and we look forward to meeting and working with him to ensure that he would be ready to release his comprehensive plan and vision for reducing all forms of gun violence as early as his joint address to Congress.
In the coming months, we hope the President will join us in actively engaging with the Members of Congress to pass a set of comprehensive life-saving gun bills, including investments in evidence-based community violence intervention programs, universal background checks for ammunition and gun sales, permit-to-purchase requirements, assault weapons and high capacity magazine bans, closing the “boyfriend” and stalking loopholes, repealing the gun industry’s legal immunity, safe storage measures, extreme risk protection orders, and other life-saving proposals.
In the first 98 days of 2021, over 11,000 Americans have been killed by guns and our nation experienced at least 133 mass shooting incidents in which four or more people were shot. Every day, over 100 Americans are killed by guns and hundreds more are injured. The time is now for all Members of Congress to work with the President to pass a set of comprehensive gun laws to dramatically reduce all forms of gun violence deaths and injuries in our nation and the Senate must begin by immediately passing the two background check bills passed out of the House of Representatives 22 days ago.”