President Joe Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to run the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention on Friday, describing her as “a key leader in the Biden-Harris Administration’s effort to end our nation’s gun violence epidemic.”
According to a White House statement, the office will be responsible for “implementing executive and legislative action.” According to the statement, Biden deserves credit for “taking more meaningful executive action than any other president” on gun control.
In remarks announcing the new office, Biden said, “I never thought I’d even remotely say this in my whole career: Guns are the No. 1 killer of children in America.”
“If members of the Congress refuse to act, then we’ll need to elect new members of Congress that will act,” Biden added. “The safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot.”
“The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will play a critical role in implementing President Biden’s and my efforts to reduce violence to the fullest extent under the law,” Harris said in the White House statement.
“Our promise to the American people is this: we will not stop working to end the epidemic of gun violence in every community, because we do not have a moment, nor a life to spare.”
Putting Harris in charge of the new post sparked outrage on social media, with many users noting that she was unable to prevent the swelling flood of illegal immigration in her previous role as Biden’s “border czar.”
Biden just started something called the “Office of Gun Violence Prevention” – and he put Kamala Harris in charge!
Hate to tell y’all but if Kamala handles GUNS like she handled the border, we ALL gonna be in body bags with toe tags on.
— Lavern Spicer 🇺🇸 (@lavern_spicer) September 22, 2023
Ok.
Since you failed miserably as the “Border Czar” then for your gun safety program set a strong example and stop using Secret Service protection.
If the American people don’t need guns then you don’t need good guys protecting you with guns like the “assault weapons” you hate. https://t.co/ppytbhoNRQ
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) September 22, 2023
We’re all going to get murdered now. Every one of us. That’s the most likely outcome of putting Kamala Harris in charge of gun violence prevention. See e.g. her work on border security and how that’s going.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 22, 2023
The agency will be directed by Stefanie Feldman, a Biden associate who has worked on anti-gun policy.
“This office will dig deep to find additional life-saving actions that this administration can take,” Feldman said, according to NPR.
Gun rights advocates criticized the creation of the office.
“While it may sound nice to the uneducated listener, an office like this would only centralize the aggressive efforts by anti-gun administrations to restrict Second Amendment rights, and will do nothing concrete to actually reduce violence,” said Aidan Johnston of Gun Owners of America, according to The Reload.
“If this administration were serious about reducing violence, they would support efforts to keep bad guys in jail instead of releasing them, and would also voice their opposition to state and local laws that restrict the rights of individuals to carry weapons for their own self-defense.”
