Everytown, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Applaud Biden-Harris Administration for New Gun Safety Executive Actions

WASHINGTON — Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new executive actions to keep schools and communities safe from gun violence, including cracking down on 3D-printed guns and machine gun conversion devices and improving school-based active shooter drills. 

Earlier this week, the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention celebrated its first anniversary, highlighting the Administration’s ambitious gun violence prevention agenda. The FBI recently released data showing that violent crime has dropped across the country last year — a testament to the Administration’s efforts to reduce gun violence and protect our communities.

“One year after opening the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to using every tool at hand to keep our families safe,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “These new executive actions will combat the dangers that come with new gun technologies, like 3D-printed guns and machine gun conversion devices, and improve active shooter drills in schools, which can traumatize our kids. We applaud President Biden and Vice President Harris for their tireless work to protect our schools and our communities from gun violence.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration has consistently shown they understand the depth of our gun violence crisis, and will use every tool at their disposal to solve it,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “Today’s executive actions are yet another reflection of this commitment. As our movement continues to push for the common-sense gun safety laws our communities deserve, we are so proud to do so alongside an administration that inspires hopes for the future we are fighting for.”

“When gun violence is the leading cause of death for my generation, it’s executive actions like these that can go on to save lives,” said Stella Kaye, a gun violence survivor and Students Demand Action National Organizing Board member. “The Biden-Harris Administration continues to prove that they understand how gun violence uniquely impacts young people in America and are committed to meaningfully addressing this crisis. It gives us hope to see the White House in lockstep with our goals for a brighter, safer future that’s free from gun violence.”

More about the executive actions announced today:

• The Biden-Harris Administration is establishing an Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force, consisting of leadership from key federal departments and agencies, to take action on two emerging firearms threats: machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed firearms. The Task Force will issue a report within 90 days assessing the threats posed by these weapons, federal agencies’ operational and legal capacities to detect, intercept, and seize them, and an interagency plan for combating these emerging threats. 

• Machine gun conversion devices, like auto sears or “Glock switches,” enable semi-automatic firearms, including easily concealable handguns, to match or exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns with a single engagement of the trigger—up to 20 bullets in one second.

• Machine gun conversion devices are often illegally imported or illegally made on a 3D printer from computer code found online. The 3D-printing of a machine gun conversion device costs as little as 40 cents and takes fewer than 30 minutes. 

• Unserialized, 3D-printed firearms can be used for illegal purposes such as gun trafficking, unlawful possession by people convicted of felonies or subject to domestic violence restraining orders, or unlawfully engaging in the business of manufacturing or selling firearms.
  
  • These firearms can be 3D-printed from computer code downloaded from the Internet and produced without serial numbers that law enforcement use to trace firearms recovered in criminal investigations

• President Biden is directing the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Surgeon General, to develop and publish, within 110 days, information for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education regarding school-based active shooter drills.
  
  • The information will include, among other things, how to conduct age- and developmentally-appropriate drills, how to prevent students and educators from experiencing trauma or psychological distress associated with them, and how best to communicate with students, families, and educators.
    
  • 95% of American public schools drill students on lockdown procedures — but there is almost no research affirming the value of these drills for preventing school shootings or protecting the school community when shootings do occur.

• In addition, the Biden-Harris Administration is:

• Promoting secure gun storage and Extreme Risk laws—by building on the resources the Department of Education developed in January 2024 with an interactive website highlighting examples of secure storage, clarifying Medicaid reimbursement for counseling on firearm safety and injury prevention, and implementing state Extreme Risk laws with further federal funding provided under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA).

• Funding community violence interventions through the Department of Justice’s Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative and by clarifying Medicaid reimbursement for violence intervention. 

• Strengthening the background check system by helping states ensure that appropriate state records are available to review to conduct BSCA’s enhanced background checks for purchasers under the age of 21 and by supporting states looking to improve their records systems. 

• Expanding data on gun trafficking and gun violence, including gunshot injuries, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Supporting survivors through best practices that address the trauma resulting from gun violence to be released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

• Destroying crime guns by ensuring appropriate disposition of firearms recovered by law enforcement from crime scenes and by training state and local partners on safe and appropriate firearm destruction.

• Preventing firearm suicide by helping facilitate voluntary out-of-home storage.