Biden Administration

Parkland Activists React to Biden's Gun Violence Moves

President Joe Biden on Monday took fresh aim at ghost guns, the privately made firearms without serial numbers

NBC Universal, Inc.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, police nationally seized about 20,000 so-called ghost guns last year.

Under the new Biden Administration regulations, all guns would essentially be treated the same. Assemble-at-home gun kits, which have no serial numbers, would be banned.

Currently, those kits can be ordered online or bought at gun shows without having to pass background checks, and because they don’t have serial numbers, it’s nearly impossible for police to trace them.

“A felon, a terrorist, a domestic abuser, can go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes,” President Joe Biden said at a Rose Garden event Monday. “These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals, we’re gonna do everything we can to deprive them of that choice.”

Tony Montalto founded the non-partisan group Stand With Parkland after his daughter, Gina, was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy.

“Clearly we want to help prevent any firearm that can circumvent security measures, especially in our schools,” Montalto said. “Our goal, of course, is to allow people to exercise their rights while keeping everyone safe and we should stop viewing those things as mutually exclusive, so we support the Biden Administration’s actions today.”

The White House event included several MSD victims, including Fred Guttenberg. After his daughter, Jaime, died in the massacre, Guttenberg became a gun safety activist. 

“We don’t know how many ghost guns are out there, what we do know is that’s now becoming the weapon of choice for those who want to commit violent crimes, those who are prohibited purchasers,” Guttenberg told us via Zoom as he waited to enter the White House. “So the importance of what the president is doing today, by putting regulations around ghost guns, that will ensure people have to commit to a background check, that will ensure those who sell them have to be licensed dealers, is a big, big deal, it will save lives immediately.”

The National Rifle Association disagrees, tweeting this Monday: “We’ll say it slow for Joe, registering and banning guns never reduces crime.”

“Is it extreme to protect police officers, extreme to protect our children, extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldn’t even pass a background check?” Biden said.

Biden also announced a nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. He is former federal prosecutor Steven Dettelbach. If confirmed by the senate he would be the first director of the agency since 2015.

Contact Us