When President Biden announced the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention on September 22, he cited the devastating fact that gun violence has taken over 30,000 lives across America so far this year. And in her remarks, Vice President Harris reminded us that “while this violence impacts all communities, it does not do so equally.” Black folks are twelve times more likely than white folks to be victims of gun homicide.
That is why so many Americans, and so many Black Americans in particular, are demanding change. One of the top concerns among Black voters in last year’s midterms was gun violence. Reducing gun violence was recently identified as the most pressing political issue among Black women voters. Black adults support gun control at the highest rate. As leaders on the ground continue to march and organize for change, the President and Vice President are taking decisive action at the national level. Following strong executive actions and the passage of the first meaningful gun control legislation in three decades, the establishment of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention is just the latest historic step taken by the Biden-Harris Administration to end the epidemic of gun violence.
To reduce gun violence and save lives, the office will work towards achieving four primary goals.
First, the office will oversee implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Besides tightening existing gun laws, the bill allocates billions of dollars to fund community violence intervention programs, mental health resources, and school safety measures. As the President outlined in an op-ed earlier this year, a number of key provisions from the bill have already been implemented – including enhanced background checks for prospective gun buyers under the age of 21 – and a great deal of money has already been invested to strengthen communities across the country. The new office will help ensure that the benefits contained in the bill are fully realized, including for communities of color.
Second, the office will help facilitate the delivery of much-needed support to survivors of gun violence. While the statistics underscore the urgency of this work, it is the stories that give it meaning. While our collective consciousness unfortunately tends to jump from story to story as each new tragedy strikes, the damage that a bullet inflicts on a family or community never goes away. The staff of this new office will be tasked with making sure that grieving families and communities have the resources they need to heal.
Third, as Republicans in Congress continue to defy the will of the people by blocking additional common sense gun reform measures, this new office will be focused on assessing the full range of legal options that President Biden can employ to reduce gun violence. These would build on the bold executive action that President Biden has already taken to keep guns out of dangerous hands. And fourth, this office will work to further build a national movement for gun violence prevention by forming new and strengthening existing partnerships with organizations on the ground.
Black leaders will be helping to set the agenda for this new office. Overseeing its work will be none other than Vice President Kamala Harris, who has dedicated her career to fighting for the safety and wellbeing of families and communities. Her fight against the crisis of gun violence – in addition to the opioid crisis, the maternal health crisis, the climate crisis, and others – has spanned many years, so it only makes sense that the President asked her to lead this work as well. Greg Jackson, himself a survivor of gun violence and a leading advocate for gun violence reduction in communities of color, will serve as deputy director of the office. By choosing Vice President Harris to oversee and Jackson to help guide the priorities of this office, President Biden has not only selected the best people for the job, but he has also demonstrated his commitment to keeping Black communities central in this work.
So what can we expect from the Office of Gun Violence Prevention? Well, we know that the epidemic of gun violence will not be eradicated overnight. But, the President has promised that the office will “help rally the nation with a sense of urgency and seriousness of purpose.” My hope is that Republicans in Congress will one day feel that urgency and purpose. Until then, the President and Vice President will continue to do everything in their power – through this new office and across the entire government – to end the epidemic of gun violence once and for all.
Gevin Reynolds is a former speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris. He is a first-year law student at Yale University.