A little over a year ago, President Joe Biden established the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. At the time of the office’s creation, Biden said his goal was to create a hub for a “whole-of-government” approach to gun violence — to bring together all the disparate departments and federal agencies involved in addressing the problem and break down silos that could hinder progress. Last week, the president followed up.
“The purpose is to drive and coordinate the government in a nationwide effort to reduce gun violence in America,” Biden said, as he prepared to sign a new executive order. “Over the past year, we’ve made tremendous progress.”
Biden’s latest executive action creates a federal task force to crack down on 3D-printed firearms and machine gun conversion devices, the small accessories that can effectively turn a normal semiautomatic handgun into a machine gun.
That task force, made up of officials from across the federal government, is an example in itself of interagency cooperation. But that wasn’t all that happened on Thursday.
A slew of other federal agencies and departments announced new moves to combat gun violence — from the Justice Department to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — helping to illustrate what a “whole-of-government” approach looks like in practice.
Below is a breakdown of what else happened last week. (Longtime Trajectory readers may recognize a few themes.)
Improving school-based shooter drills
Biden directed the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security — with the help of the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. surgeon general — to publish within 110 days information that schools can use to reduce the risk of trauma and psychological distress during active shooter drills. (We’ve covered the criticism of some of these drills by parents, educators, and students.)
Safe storage
The Department of Education is launching an interactive tool to encourage safe gun storage. The tool will showcase local policies, state storage laws, and strategies schools are using to promote gun safety in their communities. (We previously covered a possible example, in which school nurses provide gun locks to students and their families.)
Community violence intervention
The Justice Department announced its latest round of funding, providing an additional $85 million to help expand community-based violence intervention programs. These programs include hospital-based violence interventions and street outreach programs. The funding comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and is part of the DOJ’s Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (which we’ve covered extensively).
Medicaid and gun violence
By the end of October, states will be able to allow Medicaid — the public health insurance program for low-income Americans — to reimburse healthcare providers for counseling parents and caregivers on firearm safety and injury prevention.
And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the federal agency responsible for Medicaid — will work with states, which actually administer the insurance, to explore how to incorporate Medicaid benefits into violence prevention programs like hospital-based violence intervention.
(I previously reported on how the Biden administration began encouraging states to use Medicaid to reimburse for violence prevention programs in 2021.)
Red flag laws
The Justice Department is allocating more than $135 million to 48 states to support crisis intervention programs like Extreme Risk Protection Order laws, or red flag laws, and other similar initiatives. It’s the latest round of funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
And the National Extreme Risk Protection Resource Center (which we’ve covered in The Trajectory) is helping with the implementation of state red flag laws.
Background checks
The Justice Department is releasing model legislation to help states share juvenile criminal records with the national background check system — while navigating privacy and fairness concerns — to help support enhanced background checks for gun purchasers under the age of 21. (Here’s some context on that.)
Better data on gun violence and trafficking
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is improving its data on gun deaths and — perhaps more notably — gun injuries, to provide data faster and at a more local level. The CDC will use data from state health records and emergency rooms (which we covered in the first edition of The Trajectory). The improved data could help inform prevention strategies and evaluate the effectiveness of local violence prevention programs.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is set to release the fourth installment of its National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment, which will provide more information on trafficking investigations, unserialized, difficult-to-trace “ghost guns” and machine gun conversion devices.
And the FBI announced that it will be collecting additional details on gunshot wounds to include in its national crime data system by June 2025. That system, the National Incident-Based Reporting System, will enable law enforcement to submit additional details on how firearms are used in crimes, and the nature of those crimes.
Supporting survivors
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is taking steps to provide additional support to people dealing with trauma from gun violence. The agency will release best practices for local offices of violence prevention to use in addressing trauma, a tip sheet for people affected by gun violence, and a toolkit for local leaders to help communities affected by gun violence.
Preventing suicides
The Department of Veterans Affairs and SAMHSA are encouraging states to partner with federally licensed gun dealers to expand out-of-home safe storage options to veterans and their families, with the goal of saving lives by putting time and space between a person in crisis and a firearm.
Meanwhile, a federally funded program, Pause to Protect, has developed model guidelines, contracts, and operating procedures for businesses interested in providing safe storage options.
Destroying crime guns
By October 30, the Justice Department will update and clarify best practices for federal law enforcement on how to properly dispose of seized firearms, including when they work with state and local agencies. That comes after reporting from The New York Times showed that firearms that were believed to have been destroyed by law enforcement were instead turned over to third-party disposal services that destroy one part and resell the rest as nearly complete gun kits.
