President Biden will speak Tuesday at a gun violence prevention summit to highlight his administration’s efforts to reduce crime in the wake of FBI data that showed violent crime declined in the first few months of 2024.
Biden will deliver remarks at Everytown for Gun Safety Gun Sense University, where the White House said it would tout the benefits of bipartisan legislation passed in 2022. Specifically, Biden will announce that the Justice Department has charged more than 500 defendants with violating gun trafficking provisions and purchasing straw.
The president is also expected to talk about the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and investments through the American Rescue Plan in local police departments.
Biden’s speech will come a day after the White House and his campaign released preliminary FBI data for the first quarter of 2024 on Monday that showed overall violent crime decreased by 15%.
Murders fell 26% and robberies fell about 18%, according to FBI data.
“This progress we are seeing is no accident,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden and his re-election campaign have increasingly tried to lean on the idea that crime has declined across the country during his presidency, seeking to counter a popular Republican argument that violent crime is rampant in big cities.
The campaign also hopes to draw a clear contrast with former President Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, over his history of gun violence.
Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz wrote in a memo Tuesday that while Biden signed important gun safety legislation two years ago, Trump “repeatedly caved to the NRA instead of protecting children.” .
“Combating gun violence is on the ballot in November and we are campaigning on this issue,” Munoz wrote.
He noted that the campaign has held press conferences and events with gun violence survivors in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Atlanta, while Vice President Harris held a campaign event in Maryland last week focused specifically on gun violence prevention.
Trump frequently promises voters that he will protect their Second Amendment rights if he is re-elected, and has spoken annually at National Rifle Association (NRA) meetings.
“I promise you this, with me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, no one will lay a finger on your firearms – just as it did for four years when I was your president,” Trump said in a statement. February NRA Event in Pennsylvania.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
