Gun News

Anti-Gun Hysteria as Biden’s Gun Control Office Shuts Down

BREAKING: We’re only two days into the Trump-Vance Administration, and they have seemingly disbanded the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention already—making it clear this Administration works for the gun lobby, not the American people. pic.twitter.com/TH4RmOUF7T

— Everytown (@Everytown) January 21, 2025

The gun prohibition lobby is going nuts over the fact that President Donald Trump followed through on a promise to get rid of Joe Biden’s White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a mini-bureaucracy whose true reason for existence appears to have been to push the former president’s extremist gun control agenda.

The office’s White House website has been removed, the small staff reportedly quit days before Trump was sworn in—probably to avoid being given the boot—and leading gun ban groups including Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady United are literally in panic mode.

In a message posted on “X,” Everytown is lamenting, “We’re only two days into the Trump-Vance Administration, and they have seemingly disbanded the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention already—making it clear this Administration works for the gun lobby, not the American people.

The Trace, a pro-gun control publication, complained, “as of noon on January 20, the office effectively, if not officially, ceased to exist.”

The consensus among Second Amendment activists appears to be a resounding “Oh, Boo Hoo!”

For example, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, observed, “This gun control bureaucracy had no place in the White House, and it should never have been created. Its supporters are having fits on the Internet, which convinces us that President Trump’s swift action was correct.”

In a statement to the media, Gottlieb described the White House operation as “a shadow government office (established) because Congress rejected his extremist agenda of gun bans, gun registration and other Second Amendment infringements.”

“Fortunately,” Gottlieb observed, “this gun control office and the Biden administration bureaucrats at the Justice Department and ATF who were cooperating with the plan are now gone.”

The gun prohibition lobby is laboring to extoll the virtues of the now-defunct operation, arguing that the office “Helped drive a 13.5% reduction in nationwide homicides in 2023 – the steepest decline in American history.” The source of this statistic was not available.

But a look at the history of Biden’s gun control office shows the operation was not announced until September, making it highly doubtful it had much influence on the crime rate.

Another claim, which may be more credible, while raising alarms about what sort of powers this gun control office had, is that it “Created America’s first federal Gun Violence Emergency Response Team, bringing together the FBI, FEMA, and multiple federal agencies to respond to mass shootings.”

This raises the question of where this office got the authority to do that.

In its news release, Brady United declared, “The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention wasn’t about politics – it was about strengthening the government’s ability to protect Americans (more than 300 of whom are shot every single day) from guns.”

Gun rights advocates would call that patently false. The White House office was all about politics, and Brady’s careful wordsmithing once again suggests guns are responsible for people being shot, when in reality, the blame rests solely on the individuals misusing those guns.

The gun control office also “helped to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, bring together federal agencies to launch new efforts aimed at saving lives, and, up until Joe Biden’s final days in the White House, helped improve data collection and dissemination that will guide prevention efforts in schools and neighborhoods across the country for years to come,” according to The Trace.

Newsweek joined in the media wailing, stating, “Now, with the website taken down, it appears as if President Trump is following through on his promise to the National Rifle Association (NRA) to terminate Biden’s gun laws, despite gun violence rates falling rapidly during the previous president’s administration.”

The Newsweek article went further, arguing, “Trump has not announced any plans to improve gun safety in the United States. If his agenda on gun violence is aligned with the proposals set out in Project 2025, then the country will instead see a mass loosening of gun restrictions.”

Restrictive gun control laws, say Second Amendment activists, have never reduced violent crime, simply because criminals do not obey such laws.

Interestingly, Newsweek has an online survey asking whether the article was fair, or whether it unfairly leaned left or right. The most popular rating, at this writing, was “Left-Leaning/Unfair.”

While the Trump team appears to be dismantling Biden’s in-house gun control operation, 3,000 miles to the west—in the other Washington—state lawmakers held hearings on gun control legislation, which received strong opposition from gun owners, while gun prohibitionists turned out in support.

House Bill 1132 would place limits on gun and ammunition purchases for law-abiding citizens: One gun per month and 1,000 rounds of ammunition regardless of caliber or gauge. Additionally, it would limit the purchase of .50 BMG ammunition to 100 rounds per month. HB 1132 is sponsored by Rep. Darya Farivar (D-Seattle), and among those testifying was competitive shooter Allen Ernst, who said the measure violates his rights under the state and federal constitutions.

Quoted by the Seattle Times, Farivar asserted, “The fact of the matter is that ordinary people are not buying 12 guns or 12,000 rounds of ammunition a year.”

Ernst countered, “Restricting my ability to purchase ammunition in any amount infringes upon my federal level constitutional rights and impairs the rights clearly afforded to me in Washington state’s Constitution.”

House Bill 1163 creates a “permit-to-purchase” system which would require getting a permit from the police to buy a gun. In order to get the permit, a person would have to complete a safety course, including a live-fire demonstration, and go through a background check. This bill is sponsored by another Seattle Democrat, Rep. Liz Berry.

Opponents told the committee that no constitutional right should first require a police permit in order for it to be exercised. Proponents argued that licenses are required for other endeavors, from driving a car to catching fish. Driving and fishing are both privileges while keeping and bearing arms are protected rights.