Biden Anti-Crime Effort Takes On Law-Breaking Gun Dealers; Efforts To Target Chicago

 President Joe Biden is saying new efforts to stem a rising national tide of violent crime as administration officials brace for what could be a turbulent summer, focusing on attacking gun violence, offering cash to cities that need more police and providing community support.

The fear over crime is real: It has created financial hardship, displacement and anxiety. But there are additionally intricate politics at play. The spike in crime has emerge as a Republican talking point and has been a frequent topic of dialog on conservative media.

White House aides believe that Biden, with his lengthy legislative record on fighting crime as a senator, is not easy to paint as soft on the issue, and the president has been clear that he is opposed to the “defund the police” movement, which has been successfully used in opposition to other Democrats to forged them as anti-law enforcement.

But Biden additionally is making an attempt to enhance progressives’ efforts to reform policing, following a year of mass demonstrations and public pain sparked by the killing by police of George Floyd and other Black people throughout the country. And whilst combating crime and reforming the police don’t have to be at odds with each other, the two efforts are increasingly billed that way.

Biden will attempt to do both at once, in accordance to senior administration officials who detailed his upcoming tackle on the condition of anonymity due to the fact they were not approved to talk publicly about it.

In his speech Wednesday, Biden will announce a “zero tolerance” policy — not to be confused with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration that separated thousands of kids from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. This one offers no leeway to gun dealers who fail to comply with federal law — their license to sell will be revoked on the first offense.

The president has already announced a half-dozen executive actions on gun control, including cracking down on “ghost guns,” home made firearms that lack serial numbers used to hint them and that are frequently purchased without a background check.

But Biden is restrained in his power to act alone. The House passed two bills requiring background checks on all firearm sales and transfers and permitting an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. That law faces strong headwinds in the Senate, where some Republican support would be needed for passage.