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Biden administration to launch drive tackling gun violence spike

23 June 2021
 Dan Ackermann

President Biden will announce Wednesday new strategies to prevent and respond to gun violence, according to senior administration officials.

Why it matters: The pandemic has led to increased gun violence, with the U.S. witnessing mass shootings on a weekly basis this year, per the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. Homicides jumped 30% in large cities in 2020, officials said.

What's happening: The administration will implement a new policy to revoke licenses from dealers the first time they violate federal law, barring extraordinary circumstances. It will also:

  • Set aside $350 billion from the American Rescue Plan in state and local funding to advance community policing strategies, such as investing in new technologies and bolstering prosecutions of gun traffickers.
  • Launch a collaborative comprised of 15 different jurisdictions that will invest their federal funds into community violence intervention programs.
  • Expand resources for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives resources designate a point of contact in every field division so mayors, police or other local leaders can report concerns about specific dealers' compliance with the law.
  • Launch five multi-jurisdictional firearms trafficking strike forces to stem the flow of guns between cities and states.
  • Expand summer programs, employment opportunities and other services for young people so they are "productively engaged" and less likely to commit crime.
  • Help formerly incarcerated people successfully reenter their communities and transition to employment, which will include housing assistance and the appointment of a formerly incarcerated person to a DOJ role focused on reentry issues.

Of note: Officials emphasized that "no one size fits all" and said states and cities should invest in the tools that make sense for their communities.

Be smart: The package for policing strategies could put Biden at odds with Black Lives Matter activists who have called for defunding police.

The big picture: The new set of initiatives follow Biden's initial executive actions, which were announced in April after weeks of high-profile mass shootings.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.