By Jarrett Renshaw
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to New York City on Thursday to highlight his administration’s efforts to curb gun violence and project a united front with Mayor Eric Adams after a series of violent crimes that has rattled the city.
Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the trip in the wake of the funerals of two city police officers who were fatally shot last month while responding to a 911 call.
The police killings are part of an overall surge in gun violence in U.S. cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
With more guns than people, the United States is by far the most heavily armed society in the world and sales to first-time buyers skyrocketed in 2020.
The White House and Democrats are pushing back on Republican accusations that the party is weak on crime ahead of critical midterm elections this November.
Biden is expected to tout the administration’s five-part plan unveiled in June that sought to stem the flow of firearms and invest in police resources. He will also announce new efforts, such as targeting gun trafficking from Southern states to the U.S. Northeast and getting repeat gun offenders off the streets, a senior administration official said.
The Justice Department is also expected to announce new efforts to crack down on so-called ghost guns, unregistered and untraceable homemade weapons that can be made with a 3D printer.
From January of 2016 to the end of 2020, there were 23,906 suspected ghost guns reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, including 325 used in homicides, or attempted homicides, a senior administration official said.
“The trend line here is troubling,” the official said.
Biden will first travel to New York Police headquarters to join a meeting of the gun violence strategic partnership, which meets five days a week to share intelligence and develop plans. He will then go to a school to meet community leaders to talk prevention.
“The president is going to New York City because it is a community where they continue, like many other cities across the country, to experience a spike in gun violence as a result of the pandemic,” a senior official said.
Biden’s visit to the country’s biggest city will be his first since Adams was sworn in as mayor at the beginning of the year. A former police officer, Adams centered his campaign on improving public safety, and he has repeatedly spoken with optimism about his ability to work with Biden.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons)
