October 3, 2023

Take a look at Who is Running President Biden’s Gun Violence Office

By Larry Keane

The White House made a much-ballyhooed announcement that they were caving to gun control special interests by installing a new Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The office will have little to do with preventing actual crime and everything to do with using taxpayer dollars to attempt to deny Americans their Second Amendment rights.

Still, there are questions about just what this office will do and who are the people staffing this endeavor at taxpayer expense. Here’s what we know.

Mission

The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention is a section of The White House charged with carrying out President Joe Biden’s gun control executive orders. If that sounds like word salad, it is. Executive orders are orders from the president that are based on law. That means executive orders direct federal agencies to execute certain functions that are prescribed by laws authorized by Congress and signed into law by the president.

That means this new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention is a redundant effort to push gun control. Given that the president is pursuing gun control efforts outside the boundaries of federal law, it should be expected that this office will do more of that. That includes more gun control shenanigans like the ill-fated attack on hunter education. President Biden claimed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) prohibited the use of federal funds for hunter education and scholastic archery programs in schools under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Except, no such provision exists.

Congress fought back and passed H.R. 5110, the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act, which was supported by NSSF. The White House confirmed the president would sign the bill that passed with just one vote against it in the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. Senate approved it by unanimous consent.

There’s more. Expect this new office to make moves like the Biden administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) inspections. That’s seen federal firearms licensees (FFL) lose their licenses and livelihoods over minor clerical errors. There’s a lawsuit pending over this overzealous policy, which a federal judge just denied the ATF’s dismissal request.

The mission of this new office might be best described as a government-backed gun control wish granting machine. President Biden will leverage this office for universal background checks, which would necessitate a national firearm registry to work – as the Obama Justice Department admitted. If that doesn’t sound Orwellian, check with Canada and see what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is attempting with that country’s national registry. It’s a confiscation scheme.

There will be more. Gun control politicians already sent a roadmap to The White House earlier this year. In that wish list letter, they wanted U.S. firearm manufacturers with Defense Department contracts to submit to an agreement to not sell Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) to civilians. They also want to further restrict certain firearms exempted under the “sporting purposes” import exemptions. Expect this office to advocate for a reversal of the U.S. Munitions List to Commerce Control List (USMC-CCL) export reforms – originally an Obama/Biden idea. This office will also likely pressure the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to infringe on First Amendment rights to limit firearm advertisements and press for the ATF to release firearm trace data that is protected from public release by the Tiahrt Amendment. That data is protected because it is incomplete and releasing it would jeopardize law enforcement and their criminal investigations.

This gun control agenda is already playing out in President Biden’s attempt to rope in nearly anyone who privately sells a firearm as a “firearm dealer,” requiring them to obtain a license and maintain firearm transfer records in perpetuity. This isn’t, however, what the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) text reads when the definition was clarified.

Staffing

The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be headed up by none other than Vice President Kamala Harris. Vice President Harris said in a statement, “The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will play a critical role in implementing President Biden’s and my efforts to reduce violence to the fullest extent under the law, while also engaging and encouraging Congressional leaders, state and local leaders, and advocates to come together to build upon the meaningful progress that we have made to save lives.”

This new office can be added to the list of other tasks with which the vice president has been charged. That includes voting rights, the U.S. southern border, abortion, artificial intelligence, water policy, promoting child tax credits, COVID-19 vaccine education, heading the National Space Council, expanding nationwide broadband access, union labor expansion and stopping online harassment. None of those portfolios show progress.

Stefanie Feldman will serve as the Director of the newly created office. She’s a longtime aide to President Biden, serving as a Domestic Policy Advisor, where many of the Biden administration’s wild gun control schemes originated. Her social media is peppered with gun control chest-thumping, including one post on X, formerly known as Twitter, from 2019 that reads, “As president, he’ll defeat them again. And, he’ll repeal the non-sensical liability protection for gun manufacturers.”

Of course, that would require an act of Congress.

Greg Jackson will join Feldman, as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director. Jackson’s qualifications are more than 10 years as a gun control advocate for a number of organizations, including George Soros-backed Tides Foundation Community Justice Action Fund, and Director of Community Relations for Mayor Muriel Bowser of crime-ridden Washington, D.C. He was also the victim of a criminal shooting in 2013.

Jackson also brings to the office an animus against law enforcement. Washington Free Beacon reported Jackson participated in a January 2021 University of Maryland policing seminar when he lamented that he is “struggling to survive while … police budgets thrive.” He was also part of an Obama Foundation webinar entitled “Re Imagining Policing,” when he proposed “community-led violence intervention and prevention strategies” in place of traditional law enforcement. The goal, Jackson said, is to “ultimately reduce the need for policing.” How’s that going, Mr. Jackson?

Jackson’s noticeably absent on criminals illegally using firearms to prey on communities but blames the firearm industry for politicians’ unwillingness to hold criminals to account.

Robert Wilcox will also serve as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director. His role prior to the appointment was as Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. He’s a gun control lobbyist. Of course, this is the same gun control group that’s bankrolled by gun control billionaire Michael Bloomberg. As Everytown’s lobbyist, Wilcox called for bans on entire classes of firearms and supports bankrupting the firearm industry through frivolous and unconstitutional lawsuits. He’s testified for increased gun control but never for holding criminals accountable for their horrific crimes.

Crime Control

It’s not just Wilcox. Vice President Harris hasn’t called for increased prosecution of criminals, even though The White House is playing up her former role as California’s attorney general and as a prosecutor. Feldman doesn’t want to lock up criminals, nor does Jackson. Vice President Harris is more focused on giving White House access to George Soros’ grandson Alex, who was appointed to head up the progressive policy group Open Society Foundation. Vice President Harris regularly meets with the young Soros. This is the same Open Society Foundation that raised the idea of cities devoid of any lawful firearm possession – even by police.

The new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention is anything but dedicated to preventing criminal misuse of firearms. It’s a haven of gun control idealogues that are now getting paid by taxpayers to press an unconstitutional agenda.

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