Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday pitched state lawmakers on adopting gun violence prevention legislation crafted by the Department of Justice, as the White House seeks to address the crisis in the absence of action from Congress.

“I know that you are the public face of so much that is happening in your communities," Harris told state lawmakers gathered at the White House. "I know that people come up to you at the gas station or the grocery store, talking about these issues in terms of how it impacts real lives. I know that many of you have held the hands and have hugged and tried to comfort community members and your constituents and people you know who have suffered because of gun violence.”

What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris pitched state lawmakers on Wednesday on adopting gun violence prevention legislation crafted by the Department of Justice, as the White House seeks to address the crisis in the absence of action from Congress

  • The two pieces of recommended legislation would require safe storage of firearms and create reporting requirements for lost or stolen firearms, in an attempt to keep weapons out of the hands of unauthorized individuals — including K-12 school shooters, a majority of who the White House noted use a gun taken from the home of a friend or family member
  • The White House says the gathering to promote the administration’s Safer Streets Initiative on Wednesday will include “nearly 100 state legislators,”  including some who have successfully passed new gun laws and others who are interested in trying
  • The effort comes as the U.S. has already seen more than 40,000 gun violence deaths — including nearly 23,000 suicides — for the second year in a row, according to the Gun Violence Archive

Wednesday’s event, which brought together nearly 100 state legislators from 39 states, marked the launch of the Biden administration’s Safer States Initiative and comes about three months after the White House’s creation of the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention. 

Harris, who was tapped to head the office, told lawmakers present on Wednesday that “we're up against real challenges,” but emphasized “you're not in it alone.”

“There are best practices to be shared, including not only what you will write in terms of proposing legislation but how you will think about organizing, how you will think about messaging, how you will think about empowering and uplifting,” she said. 

“Privately, what was talked about is a strategy for our states to coordinate, collaborate and organize advocacy and legislation that really is going to help us to do something about this gun violence epidemic,” Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson, who attended Wednesday’s convening, said in an interview with Spectrum News. 

Pearson was one of three state lawmakers in Tennessee – a group which has become known as the “Tennessee Three” – who gained national attention earlier this year for participation in a gun control protest on the House floor. Pearson and his colleague Rep. Justin Jones were ousted from the Republican-controlled state Legislature for their involvement in the demonstration, but reclaimed their seats shortly after. 

Pearson added that “the benefit of having so many different states" together at the White House, including ones with both Democratic and Republican-controlled state legislatures, is to learn “the different ways that people are addressing the issue of gun violence.” 

The two pieces of recommended legislation would require safe storage of firearms and create reporting requirements for lost or stolen firearms, in an attempt to keep weapons out of the hands of unauthorized individuals — including K-12 school shooters, a majority of whom the White House noted use a gun taken from the home of a friend or family member.

“We are going to continue to call on Congress to act, but in the meantime we are going to be working hand in hand to states to advance” the Biden administration’s policy prescriptions, White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention Director Stefanie Feldman said on a press call Tuesday, adding that her office and Harris would spend the coming months working “with states to make sure that they have additional resources and support they need to advance these agenda items.”

The legislation that would require people to swiftly report lost or stolen weapons is intended to help law enforcement, including the FBI, investigate trafficking, a senior Justice Department official said. 

As for safe storage, the goal is to not only to keep the guns out of the hands of bad actors, but to prevent suicides, Feldman said.

Pearson acknowledged legislation surrounding guns “will be difficult” in GOP-dominant Tennessee but argued “the majority of people in our country want to see gun violence prevention laws.” 

“It is difficult but it is not impossible,” Pearson said. “And our work and our responsibility is to make sure that we continue to elevate this issue in our committees, in our state capitals, but also to do the work at the local level with our city council, with our commissioners, with our mayors who might be more progressive on these issues.” 

While part of the vice president’s recommendations to lawmakers was to push for state-level offices of gun violence prevention, similar to the federal one launched by Biden this year, Pearson said he is taking part in an effort to open a city-level office in Memphis. 

Other recommendations Harris and administration officials were expected to discuss with lawmakers included banning high-capacity magazines, making gun companies legally liable for gun violence in certain cases, investing in mental health and community violence intervention programs, and providing more support to survivors and victims. 

The vice president told state legislators to “strategize” before the next meeting, which she said is likely to take place virtually at the end of January. 

“Strategize and share with each other and then to bring back to us some of your best ideas and your state-specific strategies for dealing with community violence prevention, secure storage, and, for those who do not have it, a state assault weapons ban,” she said. 

The effort comes as the U.S. has already seen more than 40,000 gun violence deaths — including nearly 23,000 suicides — for the second year in a row, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been 636 mass shootings so far this year, which the archive defines as when four or more people are shot excluding the shooter.

In December alone, 10 people were killed across multiple mass shootings in Texas, another four were killed in Washington, and three were killed on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ campus. In October, an Army reservist allegedly killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.

Faced with a slim majority in the Senate and a Republican-controlled House, Biden and Harris have very little hope of passing gun violence legislation before the 2024 election. A bipartisan gun violence bill passed last year that made modest changes to federal law was the most significant legislation of its kind in decades.

Many Republicans argue Democratic gun legislation proposals infringe on the Second Amendment and a right of law-abiding gun owners. 

“We're up against some who would suggest a false choice, that is that you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's guns away,” the vice president argued on Wednesday. 

“Folks, we’ve got to get smart," Biden said last week as he visited Las Vegas after the mass shooting there. "There have been over 600 mass shootings in America this year alone, plus daily acts of gun violence that don’t even make the national news. All these actions I’ve taken as president of the United States to end this gun violence epidemic is not enough. We need Congress to step up.”