As shootings continue to affect everywhere in the country, President Biden calls on Congress to pass new firearms restrictions. Early Sunday morning, April 3, one of the worst mass shootings in recent history unfolded on the streets of Sacramento, California, only blocks from the state capitol. Sacramento Police have two suspects in custody, both of whom are prevented from possessing firearms. The weapons recovered by the police were illegally modified to allow for fully-automatic fire, changes that are also illegal under state and federal law.
The incident comes when shootings are affecting many cities across the country. Dallas Police responded to four separate shootings the previous weekend, including one similar to the Sacramento shooting. Several suspects fired into a crowd of people at a music venue, killing one person. The suspects are alleged to have used high-power rifles after being refused entry to the venue. No arrests have been made at this time.
President Joe Biden issued a statement on April 3 following the Sacramento shooting, calling Congress to pass the gun control legislation his administration has long requested.
“Today, America once again mourns for another community devastated by gun violence. In a single act in Sacramento, six individuals left dead and at least a dozen more injured. Families forever changed. Survivors left to heal wounds both visible and invisible,” a statement from the White House reads. “We know these lives were not the only lives impacted by gun violence last night. And we equally mourn for those victims and families who do not make national headlines. But we must do more than mourn; we must act.”
In April 2021, the Biden Administration issued an executive order to implement several regulations to reduce gun violence. Among the directives in the order, Biden has called on Congress to ban “ghost guns,” enact a federal “red flag” law and provide funding for community-based violent crime reduction plans similar to what was implemented in Dallas in 2021.
On April 6, Dallas community leaders held a press conference to discuss the city’s efforts to reduce gun violence and violent crime. The Dallas Police Department was recently acknowledged with a Smart Cities North America Award for the Violent Crime Reduction Plan instituted by Police Chief Eddie Garcia. The crime reduction plan has allegedly resulted in significant changes to how police prevent violence in the city, particularly in South Dallas, an area critics claim is neglected by the police.
“When I hear that we don’t care about Southern Dallas, that’s something that hits me. It’s simply not true,” Police Chief Garcia said at the press conference. “We care when we talk about gun crime in the three divisions of southern Dallas. In South Central, gun crime is down actually a little over 12% [and] South East is down almost 13 and a half percent. Up West is down almost five and a half percent. When you look at the total violent crime in the southern section of Dallas, South Central is down almost nine and a half percent. South East is down almost 13 and a half percent, and Southwest is down almost over 18%.”
Chief Garcia said that the police department is reducing crime using targeted tactics, beginning with breaking the city into small grids and identifying areas with higher crime rates, then focusing police presence in those areas.
District 4 Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold asked that the community step up and do more to help law enforcement and city officials reduce violent gun crimes.
“There will be some who will refuse to follow rules and regulations,” said Councilwoman Arnold during the press conference. “We’re simply asking them to join us. You see something, you say something, you see something, you do something because it’s going to take all of us if we’re moving toward the path of having quality of life in the city of Dallas.”
President Biden called on Congress to support the reduction of gun deaths through banning ghost guns, requiring universal background checks, and instituting federal bans on selling high-powered rifles and magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds.
Unfortunately, none of these restrictions would have prevented the tragedy in Sacramento and hundreds of other shootings involving illegally modified and stolen firearms used by individuals already banned from possessing weapons, like the suspects in Sacramento. However, policing plans like the one in Dallas have shown that gun violence can be reduced through smarter policing and more engaged community involvement.
The NRA has too much influence over the legislators as 94% of American voters supported universal background checks, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll and an July 2019 poll by NPR found that 89% of respondents supported background checks for all gun purchases at gun shows or other private sales.