President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order which aims to increase background checks and bolster red flag flaws.
The President signed the executive order while in Monterey Park, CA, the southern California city where a gunman stormed a dancehall during a lunar New Year celebration, killing 11 people.
The order also encourages safe storage of guns and asks the Federal Trade Commission to analyze how gun manufacturers market firearms.
“The cost to communities across Florida and the country has been very, very steep,” said Olivia Dalton, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary in an interview with Fox 4 Investigates.
The President’s latest push to restrict broader access to firearms, comes as multiple bills which would expand gun access in Florida make their way through the state legislature.
One bill, which would allow a person to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, has cleared committees in both the House and Senate.
“To not require a license for somebody to carry a concealed weapon, that’s the opposite of common-sense gun safety legislation,” said Dalton. “That’s the opposite of what people are asking for.”
This week, the legislature is also looking at a bill that would lower the minimum age to buy a long gun or a rifle from 21 to 18.
Former Governor Rick Scott increased the age limit soon after the Parkland School shooting in 2018.
Jed Carroll of Gun Owners of America, told a House subcommittee his son, who was 17 at the time, was crushed by the new age restriction.
“He felt he was being penalized from the actions of a deranged psychopath from the other end of the state,” Carroll said.”
The bill passed the subcommittee on Criminal Justice on Monday.
Catherine Allen, who was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the tragic shooting, spoke out against the bill.
“In my school, Uvalde, Buffalo the shooting legally purchased a gun before turning 21,” Allen said.
“We don’t want to go back to how it was. And doing so would be a slap in the face to Floridians.”
