Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (November 13, 2019) — Attorney General William Barr announced a new initiative Wednesday that would better enforce the U.S. gun background check system, coordinate state and federal gun cases and ensure prosecutors quickly update databases to show when a defendant can’t possess a firearm because of mental health issues.
The push, known as Project Guardian, was being unveiled at a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee, alongside officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
As part of the program, U.S. prosecutors will coordinate with state and local law enforcement officials to consider potential federal charges when a suspect is arrested for weapons possession, is believed to have used a gun to commit a violent crime or drug-trafficking offense or is suspected of being a violent gang member.
“Gun crime remains a pervasive problem in too many communities across America,” Barr said in a statement.
The program “will strengthen our efforts to reduce gun violence by allowing the federal government and our state and local partners to better target offenders who use guns in crimes and those who try to buy guns illegally,” Barr said.
The initiative requires agents in charge of ATF offices across the country to either create new guidelines or review the protocols already in place to bring federal charges against people who lie in order to obtain a gun from a firearms dealer. Prosecutors will particularly focus on offenders who have violent backgrounds, are gang members or who have faced domestic violence charges.
U.S. attorney’s offices would also be required to quickly input information about people who can’t own guns for mental health reason into federal databases. The attorney general is also encouraging U.S. attorneys across the country to adopt programs that could help disrupt potential threats and consider recommending court-ordered mental health treatment, in some cases, for defendants found to be ineligible to own firearms for mental health reasons.
Federal law defines nine categories that would prohibit someone from being legally allowed to own or possess a firearm. They include being convicted of any felony charge or a misdemeanor domestic violence, being subject to a restraining order or active warrants, being dishonorably discharged from the military, being addicted to drugs, renouncing your U.S. citizenship or being in the country illegally or being involuntarily committed to a mental health institution or being found by a court to be “a mental defective.”
The new program will also help to enhance ATF’s crime gun intelligence efforts, which the agency uses to identify and target criminals and identify where they obtained their guns.
Agents will work alongside prosecutors to “cut the pipeline of crime guns from those violent individuals who seek to terrorize our communities,” said Regina Lombardo, ATF’s acting deputy director.
https://onenewsnow.com/ap/politics/justice-dept-rolls-out-new-program-to-combat-gun-violence