Biden's budget proposal includes more money for DOJ to fight gun violence

WASHINGTON – President J oe Biden's budget proposal for the Department of Justice includes more funding to combat gun violence at a time when Republicans have criticized him as soft on crime .

Biden’s proposal unveiled Thursday includes $17.8 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion from last year, for law enforcement. That figure includes:

• $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to expand gun trafficking strike forces.
• $1.9 billion for the U.S. Marshals Service to support fighting violent crime such as catching fugitives.
• $51 million for the FBI to continue implementing legislation and enhance background checks for gun buyers.

Overall, the Justice Department would get $39.7 billion, a $2.2 billion or 5.9% increase from last year.

The figures remain open for debate . The budget is a spending blueprint that maps the Biden administration’s priorities. But lawmakers will spend months debating it and then deciding which programs actually deserve funding. Congressional Republicans have criticized other gun control measures , including the one Biden aims to fund in his budget.

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Why focus spending on gun background checks?

The additional FBI funding is to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act , which Biden signed into law last June.

The law – the most significant gun control package to clear Congress in 30 years – was approved weeks after the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The law enhanced background checks for buyers 18 to 21 years old, encouraged states to develop better “red flag” laws to deny guns to people who are deemed dangerous and added dating partners to the list of domestic abusers prohibited from buying firearms.

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“That was the same plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde: Do something on gun violence,” Biden said in his State of the Union speech . “But we know our work is not done.”

Biden has also called for a revival of the assault weapons ban , which he sponsored as a senator from Delaware. The 1994 ban expired in 2004.

But some Republicans have opposed those bills and prevented a resumption of the assault weapons ban for decades. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the background-check legislation last year would take away due process for law-abiding gun owners rather than stop violent shootings by deranged criminals.

Biden plans to travel Tuesday to Monterey Park, California, to discuss his efforts to reduce gun violence.

FBI issues more seizure orders for guns sold to prohibited buyer

The FBI has been issuing more seizure orders for guns sold to suspected prohibited buyers than at any time in the history of the federal firearm background check system, according to the most recent data compiled by the bureau.

More than 6,300 such referrals were transmitted to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives in 2020 to take back weapons from buyers when background checks later determined they may have been ineligible because of criminal records, mental health histories, disqualifying military service records and other bans.

An additional 5,200 directives were issued in 2021, adding to the largest two-year total by far since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began publishing data in 1998.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's budget proposal includes more money for DOJ to fight gun violence