Brady Urges Congress to Adopt President Biden’s Funding Requests for Gun Violence Prevention in the Safer America Plan

Biden’s Safer American Plan Includes Landmark Funding to Modernize ATF, Invest in Community Violence Prevention Programs, and Support Veteran Suicide Prevention Initiatives.

Washington, D.C., July 21, 2022 - Today, Brady urges Congress to adopt and pass the funds for community violence intervention programs and gun violence prevention included in President Biden’s Safer American Plan. President Biden’s plan builds on the historic action that the Biden-Harris administration has taken since January 2021, calling for funds to address gun violence in all of its forms and implement solutions that reduce both the supply of illegal firearms and the demand for these dangerous weapons in communities across the nation.

Brady President Kris Brown shared:

“President Biden’s Safer America Plan builds on the historic progress that the Biden-Harris administration has made on addressing our nation’s gun violence crisis. No administration in American history has acted as swiftly or as comprehensively to stop the violence that kills over 110 Americans every day. The fact that this plan prioritizes comprehensive strategies for gun violence prevention underscores the President’s commitment to this issue and the reality that even more must be done. Congress must include the funding requests in this plan to help modernize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to stop the supply of illegal guns in our country as well as historic funding for evidence-based community violence intervention programs that heal communities and reduce conflict to reduce the demand for deadly weapons. The policies in this plan are common-sense, historic, and will save lives.”

About the Safer America Plan

President Biden’s Safer America Plan builds on the Biden-Harris administration’s extensive efforts to address gun violence. The plan includes funding requests to address both the supply of and demand for dangerous firearms. This includes:

• Increasing the funding for ATF by 13% which will help to modernize the agency and ensure that Director Dettelbach and the dedicated agents at the ATF have the support and resources needed to address gun crime and prevent trafficking

• A request for $3.2 billion in discretionary resources for State and local grants in addition to $30 billion in mandatory resources for law enforcement and community violence intervention programs

• A request for $497 million to support veteran suicide prevention initiatives that the administration has championed and initiated to address the veteran suicide crisis

About the Biden-Harris Administration’s Actions to Prevent Gun Violence:

In under two years, President Biden and the Biden-Harris administration have taken historic actions to address America’s gun violence crisis. In his first 18 months in office, President Biden has taken immediate and decisive steps using his executive authority to address gun violence in all of its forms. This includes a suite of executive actions announced in April 2021, a comprehensive violence reduction strategy that takes a supply side approach to addressing gun violence, and an emphasis on veterans and suicide prevention that includes safe storage guidance. President Biden’s executive actions have banned unserialized and untraceable ghost guns as well as dangerous braces that are used to transform pistols into more lethal short-barreled rifles. His nominee to lead the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Steve Dettelbach, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become only the second-ever Senate-confirmed ATF Director. President Biden became the first President in nearly 30 years to sign comprehensive federal gun violence prevention legislation when he signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June 2022.