US Politics

Joe Biden on Friday ordered a study of adding seats to the supreme court, creating a bipartisan 36-member commission that will spend the next six months examining the politically incendiary issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for its justices.The executive order fulfills a campaign promise to examine court reform, including expanding the number of justices or setting term-limits, amid growing calls from progressive activists to realign the supreme court after its composition tilted sharply to the right during Donald Trump’s presidency. Biden has not said whether he supports expanding the court, also known as “court packing”.Trump appointed three justices to the high court. One was a seat that Republicans had blocked Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, from filling. Despite arguing in 2016 that the seat should be filled by winner of the year’s presidential election, Republicans rushed to fill the supreme court seat vacated by death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg just weeks before the 2020 election.The result was one of the most ideologically conservative courts in modern times.Biden’s executive order directs the commission to complete its report within 180 days of its first meeting. But it was not charged with making a recommendation under the White House order that created it.The panel is composed of a “bipartisan group of experts” that includes constitutional and legal scholars; former federal judges; practitioners who have appeared before the court as well as reform advocates.The commission co-chairs are Bob Bauer, professor of practice and distinguished scholar in residence at New York University School of Law and a former White House counsel for Obama, as well as the Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez, former deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel at the US Department of Justice under Obama.The commission will hold public meetings appraising the “merits and legality of particular reform proposals”, according to the White House.The announcement comes after the supreme court justice Stephen Breyer warned this week that efforts to expand the court could erode public “trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics”.The remarks by Breyer, 82, the court’s oldest justice and a member of its minority liberal bloc, prompted calls for his resignation from reform advocates while Democrats still control the Senate and the confirmation process. Demand Justice, a progressive group focused on the supreme court, started an online petition calling for his retirement.“Tell Justice Breyer: put the country first. Don’t risk your legacy to an uncertain political future. Retire now,” the petition states.If an opening should arise, Biden has promised to appoint the nation’s first ever Black female justice.On Friday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters that Biden was not pushing for Breyer to retire.“He believes that’s a decision Justice Breyer will make when he decides it’s time to no longer serve on the supreme court,” she said.During his presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly sidestepped questions on expanding the court. A former chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Biden has asserted that the system of judicial nominations is “getting out of whack”, but has not said if he supports adding seats or making other changes to the current system of lifetime appointments, such as imposing term limits.The size of the court has been set at nine members since just after the civil war. Any effort to alter it would be explosive, particularly at a moment when Congress is nearly evenly divided. Changing the number of justices would require congressional approval.“With five justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, it’s crucial that we consider every option for wresting back political control of the supreme court,” said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group.“President Biden’s commission demonstrates a strong commitment to studying this situation and taking action.”Associated Press contributed to this report More

US deliveries of the “one-shot” Johnson and Johnson vaccine are set to drop by 85% next week, in a setback to the government’s vaccination campaign.The Biden administration has allocated just 700,000 J&J doses to states for the week beginning 12 April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a huge drop from the nearly 5m shots allocated the week before.The decline comes after J&J reported a batch of its Covid-19 vaccines developed in Baltimore had failed quality standards and cannot be used – as Anthony Fauci warned the US is at risk from a new coronavirus surge.Distribution of the J&J vaccine – which requires just one dose, as opposed to the two-shot Moderna and Pfizer vaccines also authorized for use in the US – has been uneven since it was introduced.The government allocated 2.8m doses to states at the beginning of March, only for that to drop to 493,000 the next week, but the drop to 12 April is the steepest yet.The slowdown comes after workers at the plant manufacturing coronavirus shots for J&J and AstraZeneca accidentally conflated the vaccines’ ingredients several weeks ago, the New York Times reported.It is unclear if the mix-up is the reason for the drop in J&J doses, and a J&J spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the company still aimed to deliver 100m doses to the US by the middle of year, most of those by the end of May. The federal government has a deal with J&J for 200m doses.On Thursday Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert in the US, told CNN coronavirus cases had plateaued at a “disturbingly high level”. More than 61,000 new cases were reported on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.“It’s almost a race between getting people vaccinated and this surge that seems to want to increase,” Fauci said.Health experts have warned the rising number of coronavirus cases in dozens of US states is probably attributable to the spread of virus variants. Michigan has recorded the worst increase in infections over the past two weeks, at a rate not seen since early December.On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that nearly half of new US virus infections are in just five states, with New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey responsible for nearly 197,500 new cases in the latest available seven-day period.Despite Michigan’s rate of new infections in the past two weeks, Gretchen Whitmer, the states Democratic governor, has stopped short of ordering restrictions, instead asking for voluntary compliance. She has blamed the virus surge on pandemic fatigue, which has people moving about more, as well as more contagious variants.This week, Joe Biden said half of all American adults are on track to have received at least one Covid-19 vaccination by this weekend. The president has set a goal of delivering 200m vaccinations by 30 April – which marks his first 100 days in office.One in four American adults have now been fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the CDC. More

Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican congressman embroiled in an alleged sex-trafficking scandal, is facing calls to resign from a member of his own party.Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, wrote: “Matt Gaetz needs to resign” in a tweet posted on Thursday, linking to a Daily Beast article which claims Gaetz paid $900 to an accused sex trafficker.Gaetz, 38, has been under pressure since the end of March, when the New York Times reported he was being investigated over an alleged sexual relationship with an underage teenage girl.The congressman, one of Donald Trump’s closest allies, has refused to step down, despite calls from a number of Democrats, but will face renewed scrutiny after Kinzinger became the first prominent member of the Republican party to also demand Gaetz resign.The Daily Beast reported that Gaetz sent Joel Greenberg, a friend who is accused of crimes including sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl and is said to be negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors, a payment of $900 over Venmo in May 2018.The next day, according to the Daily Beast, Greenberg used the same app to send payments totaling $900 to three young women. Greenberg captioned the payments to the women as: “Tuition”, “School” and “School”.After the Daily Beast approached Gaetz for comment he responded through a PR firm: “The rumors, gossip and self-serving misstatements of others will be addressed in due course by my legal team.”On Thursday lawyers said Greenberg was planning to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. Greenberg faces charges including one count of sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old girl, stalking and wire fraud.NBC News reported that prosecutors are examining Gaetz and Greenberg’s relationship, and whether they “used the internet to search for women they could pay for sex”. Also under investigation is whether Gaetz paid women to travel to the Bahamas for sex, according to NBC News.Over the past two weeks numerous reports have emerged of Gaetz’s dubious behavior.CNN reported that Gaetz, sometimes on the floor of the House, showed other lawmakers naked pictures of women he claimed to have slept with, while allegations re-emerged that Gaetz had created a game with a point-scoring system for sleeping with members of staff or fellow politicians.Gaetz was elected to the House in 2016, the same year Trump was elected president, and quickly tied his fortunes to Trump.He became one of Trump’s stoutest defenders, making frequent appearances on Fox News, and in 2018 Gaetz was one of 18 House Republicans who nominated Trump for the Nobel peace prize.In January Gaetz traveled to Wyoming to hold a rally against Liz Cheney, one of the state’s US senators, due to her perceived disloyalty to Trump.Gaetz may have wanted something from Trump in return. This week the New York Times reported that in the last days of Trump’s presidency Gaetz asked the White House for “blanket pre-emptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed”. More

Amidst allegations central to the Matt Gaetz scandal, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Peter Wehner of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. They discuss the decades-old pattern of prominent Christian political leaders and commentators, who forgive allies for the same transgressions for which they harshly judge their opponents

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Last week, the news broke that the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was being investigated by the justice department “regarding sexual conduct with women”. He denies any criminal wrongdoing. Jonathan started looking back to times when other prominent Republicans were caught up in scandals that might otherwise be seen as immoral by white evangelicals, but were time after time forgiven. So why do some in the Christian right seem to abandon their principles depending on the colour of the rosette a person might wear? And what are the long-term consequences of such hypocrisy? Peter Wehner, author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump and a conservative commentator for the DC thinktank the Ethics and Public Policy Center, answers those questions and more. Send us your questions and feedback to [email protected] Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

The National Archives will not be allowed to resurrect Donald Trump’s tweets on the social network, Twitter said on Wednesday, even in its official capacity as a record-keeping organization. However the archive is working to create a separate record of the former president’s tweets on his official library website.The former president has been permanently banned from Twitter since January, when the company became the first major social media platform to eject Trump after his behavior during the Capitol insurrection.The confirmation that Trump’s tweets cannot be revived for archival purposes, first reported by Politico, highlights the ongoing debate on what should become of Trump’s digital legacy. In the weeks and months after, many free speech advocates have argued there should be a public record of what the president has said – even if it is no longer allowed on the platforms where he frequently posted controversial and hateful rhetoric.In the past the National Archives, an independent agency charged with preserving government and historical records, has maintained living records of other significant Twitter accounts by linking back to the accounts themselves from its presidential websites. That means users can interact with them, including retweeting and favoriting them.For example, National Archives maintains the Twitter account of the former first lady Melania Trump, @flotus45, as well as the former Trump administration account @whitehouse45.This will not be the case with Trump, according to the Politico report, though the National Archives is in the process of preserving tweets from the @realDonaldTrump “as is standard with any administration transition”, said Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy, according to Politico.“Given that we permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, the content from the account will not appear on Twitter as it did previously or as archived administration accounts do currently, regardless of how Nara decides to display the data it has preserved,” Kennedy said. “Administration accounts that are archived on the service are accounts that were not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”The National Archives will still be making Trump’s tweets visible, including those that Twitter has taken action against. It is working out the best way to do so, said the Nara spokesperson James Pritchett. It is possible the tweets could be saved by screenshot rather than by linking to a live account.“Twitter is solely responsible for the decision of what content is available on their platform,” Pritchett said. “Nara works closely with Twitter and other social media platforms to maintain archived social accounts from each presidential administration, but ultimately the platform owners can decline to host these accounts. Nara preserves platform independent copies of social media records and is working to make that content available to the public.”Facebook and YouTube also banned Trump after the Capitol attack. YouTube has said it would reinstate Trump after the “risk of violence has passed” and Facebook’s third-party review board is debating whether and when the former president can return. More

Key events

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5.39pm EDT
17:39

White House expresses concern over Northern Ireland violence

5.16pm EDT
17:16

Amazon challenges hundreds of ballots in Alabama workers’ union drive

5.00pm EDT
17:00

Today so far

3.29pm EDT
15:29

Fauci thanks US health workers for sacrifices but admits PPE shortages drove up death toll

3.11pm EDT
15:11

Gaetz associate may cooperate with prosecutors – report

1.52pm EDT
13:52

Today so far

12.07pm EDT
12:07

Biden condemns gun violence as ‘an epidemic’ and ‘an international embarrassment’

Live feed

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5.39pm EDT
17:39

White House expresses concern over Northern Ireland violence

Lisa O’Carroll, Rory Carroll and Rajeev Syal report:
The White House has expressed concern over a week of riots in Northern Ireland, with Joe Biden joining Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister in calling for calm after what police described as the worst violence in Belfast for years.
It came as police used water cannon against nationalist youths in west Belfast, as unrest stirred again on the streets on Thursday evening.
In a statement, the US president’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said: “We are concerned by the violence in Northern Ireland” and that Biden remained “steadfast” in his support for a “secure and prosperous Northern Ireland in which all communities have a voice and enjoy the gains of the hard-won peace”.
She spoke as the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, called on political leaders across the spectrum to tone down their language to ease tensions.
Biden, who has Irish roots, has repeatedly expressed support for the peace process and last year waded into a row over UK plans to override parts of the Brexit deal, warning Boris Johnson that any trade deal was “contingent upon respect for the [peace] agreement and preventing the return of a hard border”.
Police said as many as 600 people had been involved in disturbances in Belfast on Wednesday, when a bus was petrol-bombed, rubber bullets were fired and missiles were hurled over a “peace wall”.
Read more:

5.16pm EDT
17:16

Amazon challenges hundreds of ballots in Alabama workers’ union drive

Michael Sainato

Amazon has challenged hundreds of ballots in a vote to form a union at one of its warehouses in Alabama in a unionization drive seen as one of the most important labor fights in recent American history.
Some 3,215 votes were cast in the election out of more than 5,800 eligible employees. The election will determine if workers in Bessemer will form the first labor union at an Amazon warehouse in the US.
According to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, hundreds of ballots were challenged, mostly by Amazon. In the early vote the number of votes against forming a union moved into a lead of 439 versus 200 for shortly before 5pm EST. on Thursday. But many observers expect the huge amount of challenged ballots to lead to a delay in any formal announcement of a result.
“There remain hundreds of challenged ballots mostly by the employer that will need to be addressed after the public count. As the ballot envelopes are opened and the ballots are counted there’s a possibility that more issues could impact the final results,” the RWDSU said.
The unionization drive has sparked huge political interest and a roster of leftwing politicians – and even some Republicans – have spoken out in support of it or visited the state. The US labor movement sees it as a bellwether case for hopes of expanding its power, especially in areas of the economy – such as online retail – that are increasingly dominant.
Ballots in the vote can be challenged based on several factors, such as the eligibility of the voter in regards to job classification or dates of employment. The NLRB will probably hold a later hearing on the validity of the challenged ballots, after unchallenged ballots are tallied, if the number of challenged ballots could affect the outcome of the election.
Read more:

5.00pm EDT
17:00

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:

Joe Biden formally announced a series of executive orders aimed at ending gun violence in America. The president has called on the justice department to crack down on “ghost guns,” unregistered firearms assembled from kits, and gun accessories that can functionally transform pistols into rifles. Biden said in the Rose Garden today, “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment.”
George Floyd died from a “low level of oxygen” caused by “shallow breathing,” an expert testified at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. The expert’s analysis could undermine arguments from Chauvin’s defense team that Floyd died because of drug use and preexisting health conditions.
Joe Manchin said there was “no circumstance” where he would support ending the filibuster. In a Washington Post op-ed published last night, the Democratic senator wrote, “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” Manchin’s stance could hinder much of Biden’s legislative agenda, given the filibuster allows the Republican minority to block bills unless they have the support of 60 senators.
An associate of Matt Gaetz may cooperate with federal prosecutors, a potentially ominous sign for the Republican congressman as he faces allegations of sex-trafficking. According to the Washington Post, prosecutors have indicated the case against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, may end in a plea deal. That could mean Greenberg has agreed to cooperate with federal officials in exchange for a lesser sentence.
Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged shortages of personal protective equipment likely contributed to coronavirus deaths among health workers in the US. “During the critical times when there were shortages was when people had to use whatever was available to them,” the president’s chief medical adviser said in an interview with the Guardian. “I’m sure that increased the risk of getting infected among healthcare providers.” According to the Guardian and Kaiser Health News’ Lost on the Frontline database, more than 3,600 US health workers have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

4.43pm EDT
16:43

Amudalat Ajasa reports for the Guardian from Minneapolis:
Behind the Hennepin county courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, which is heavily fortified for the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, a small but determined core of seven protesters gathers every day.
Sometimes there are many more protesters, sometimes not so many. But always this group, there hoping to witness justice for George Floyd, who died under the knee of Chauvin in south Minneapolis last May.
Outside, the core group hold signs, amplify chants with a bullhorn and circle the courthouse with the aim of encouraging peaceful protest.
“I get up at 5am and I’m usually out here a little after 7am every day,” John Stewart Jr, 57, said, as his Black Lives Matter flag fluttered in the wind.
Stewart, an ordained pastor in the city, and the “core of seven” generally stay put in their chosen spot behind the courthouse for the entire length of an average work day: 9-5, or longer.

4.24pm EDT
16:24

Donald Trump has endorsed two sitting Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, in new statements today.
“Rand Paul has done a fantastic job for our Country, and for the incredible people of Kentucky,” the former president said in a statement released by his political action committee, the Save America Pac. “He has my Complete and Total Endorsement for another term in the U.S. Senate. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has a true champion in Rand Paul.”
Trump praised Johnson as “brave” and “bold” and offered him his “complete and total endorsement” — even though the Wisconsin senator has not yet announced whether he will run again.
Johnson and Paul are both up for reelection next year, when Republicans hope to flip the Senate after Democrats took control with two wins in Georgia earlier this year.

4.04pm EDT
16:04

David Smith

Joe Biden, under pressure to act after a slew of mass shootings, has announced his first steps to curb the “epidemic” and “international embarrassment” of gun violence in America.
The president has prioritised the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery during the first two and half months of his presidency. But a series of recent shooting tragedies in Georgia, Colorado and California led to renewed calls for urgent action on guns.

About 316 people are shot every day in America and 106 of them die, he noted, “hitting Black and brown communities the hardest”. Gun violence is estimated to cost the nation $280bn a year, according to the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “This is an epidemic, for God’s sake, and it has to stop,” an emotional Biden said.
The White House event included parents family members who have lost loved ones to the scourge. “They know what it’s like to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth,” remarked Biden, who has endured his own measure of loss. “They understand that.”
Seeking to break a Washington paralysis that confounded former president Barack Obama, even after horrific mass shootings, Biden said he was announcing immediate concrete actions that he can take now without Congress. Republicans have long resisted fundamental reform, citing the second amendment to the constitution that protects the right to bear arms.
“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the second amendment,” Biden insisted. “They’re phony arguments, suggesting that these are second amendment rights at stake, what we’re talking about. But no amendment to the constitution is absolute. You can’t shout ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theatre and call it freedom of speech.”

3.47pm EDT
15:47

Congresswoman Lucy McBath reflected on the loss of her son Jordan, who died in a 2012 shooting, as she celebrated Joe Biden’s new actions to address gun violence.
McBath, who was at the Rose Garden for Biden’s formal announcement of the executive orders earlier today, said on Twitter, “To my Jordan, This day. At the White House. In the Rose Garden. The President announced actions that will help keep families safe. Actions that will protect children across America. Children like you. My dear Jordan, this day is your day.”

Rep. Lucy McBath
(@RepLucyMcBath)
To my Jordan,This day.At the White House. In the Rose Garden.The President announced actions that will help keep families safe. Actions that will protect children across America.Children like you.My dear Jordan, this day is your day. pic.twitter.com/6tmYmsciX8

April 8, 2021

In 2012, Jordan Davis was shot and killed by a man who confronted the 17-year-old about his music being too loud. The shooter tried to use Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law to defend his actions, but he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
After Davis’ death, McBath became a prominent advocate for gun control laws, eventually running for Congress in 2018 and flipping a Republican seat in Georgia.

3.29pm EDT
15:29

Fauci thanks US health workers for sacrifices but admits PPE shortages drove up death toll

Jessica Glenza

Dr Anthony Fauci thanked America’s healthcare workers who “every single day put themselves at risk” during the pandemic, even as he acknowledged that PPE shortages had contributed to the deaths of more than 3,600 of them.
“We rightfully refer to these people without hyperbole – that they are true heroes and heroines,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. The deaths of so many health workers from Covid-19 are “a reflection of what healthcare workers have done historically, but putting themselves in harm’s way, by living up to the oath they take when they become physicians and nurses,” said Fauci.
The Guardian and Kaiser Health News have tracked healthcare workers deaths throughout the pandemic in the Lost on the Frontline database. More than 3,600 health worker deaths have been tallied in the database, which is considered the most authoritative accounting in the country.
Personal protective equipment – including gloves, gowns and critical masks – have been in short supply since the pandemic began and heightened the toll. The US is the world’s largest importer of PPE, which made it especially vulnerable to the demand shock and export restrictions that hit the global market last spring.
“During the critical times when there were shortages was when people had to use whatever was available to them,” said Fauci. “I’m sure that increased the risk of getting infected among healthcare providers.”

3.11pm EDT
15:11

Gaetz associate may cooperate with prosecutors – report

An associate of Matt Gaetz is expected to strike a plea deal with federal prosecutors, which could be an ominous sign for the Republican congressman as he faces allegations of sex-trafficking.
The Washington Post has the details:

Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., had first been charged last summer in a bare-bones indictment that prosecutors repeatedly superseded to add charges of sex trafficking of a minor, stealing from the tax office and even trying to use fraud to get covid-19 relief money while out on bond. In the course of the investigation into his conduct, people familiar with the matter have said, federal authorities came across evidence that Gaetz might have committed a crime and launched a separate investigation into him.
At a status conference in the case Thursday, federal prosecutor Roger Handberg told a judge he expected the case to end in a plea, though negotiations are ongoing. Fritz Scheller, an attorney for Greenberg, asked the judge to set a deadline of May 15 for the two sides to either reach a deal, or move toward a trial in the summer.
It was not immediately clear how far the negotiations had gotten, or to what extent a plea agreement would require Greenberg to cooperate with investigators. If prosecutors were to get Greenberg on their side as a cooperator, it is possible he could help bolster the case against Gaetz, a higher-profile target. A person who pleads guilty in a criminal case can often lessen their potential penalty by providing information that might be helpful to investigators in other matters.

Reports emerged late last month that Gaetz was under investigation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her to travel with him.
Gaetz has denied the allegations and claimed he’s the victim of an extortion plot by a former by a former justice department official. That official has dismissed those claims as “completely false”.

2.52pm EDT
14:52

Joanna Walters

Gun violence prevention advocate and former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has also tweeted out her own version of the pic where she elbow-bumps Joe Biden at the White House after the president announced executive actions.
“I’m with you, Joe. Together, we will protect our country from gun violence,” she tweeted.

Gabrielle Giffords
(@GabbyGiffords)
I’m with you, Joe. Together, we will protect our country from gun violence. @POTUS pic.twitter.com/rLFVabhpI9

April 8, 2021

And Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy hobnobbed with Giffords in the Oval.

Chris Murphy
(@ChrisMurphyCT)
In the Oval Office today w my friend Gabby. Thanks to @POTUS for bringing us all together to take action on gun violence. pic.twitter.com/BGood4iyR6

April 8, 2021

2.38pm EDT
14:38

Joanna Walters

The trial of the white former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, charged with murdering George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, is underway in the Minnesota city and we’re running a dedicated live blog to bring you events from inside and outside court. More

Joe Biden, under pressure to act after a slew of mass shootings, has announced his first steps to curb the “epidemic” and “international embarrassment” of gun violence in America.The president has prioritised the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery during the first two and half months of his presidency. But a series of recent shooting tragedies in Georgia, Colorado and California led to renewed calls for urgent action on guns.Biden said he is directing the justice department to tighten regulations on sales of so-called “ghost guns”, which are untraceable firearms assembled from kits.Other executive actions include a state-level push of “red-flag laws” that allow courts and local law enforcement to remove guns from people deemed a risk to communities.On Thursday Biden was joined in the sunshine of the White House Rose Garden by Kamala Harris, the vice-president, Merrick Garland, the attorney general, as well as members of Congress steeped in the issue.“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic and it’s an international embarrassment,” said Biden, pointing out that on Wednesday five people were killed – including young children – in a shooting at a home near Rock Hill in South Carolina.About 316 people are shot every day in America and 106 of them die, he noted, “hitting Black and brown communities the hardest”. Gun violence is estimated to cost the nation $280bn a year, according to the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “This is an epidemic, for God’s sake, and it has to stop,” an emotional Biden said.The White House event included parents family members who have lost loved ones to the scourge. “They know what it’s like to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth,” remarked Biden, who has endured his own measure of loss. “They understand that.”Seeking to break a Washington paralysis that confounded former president Barack Obama, even after horrific mass shootings, Biden said he was announcing immediate concrete actions that he can take now without Congress. Republicans have long resisted fundamental reform, citing the second amendment to the constitution that protects the right to bear arms.“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the second amendment,” Biden insisted. “They’re phony arguments, suggesting that these are second amendment rights at stake, what we’re talking about. But no amendment to the constitution is absolute. You can’t shout ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theatre and call it freedom of speech.”Biden said regulations on the purchase of “ghost guns” would be tightened. More than 30% of the illegal weapons confiscated in some areas of California are “ghost guns”, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.“You can go buy the kit,” said Biden. “They have no serial numbers so when they show up at a crime scene they can’t be traced, and the buyers aren’t required to pass background checks to buy the kit to make the gun.“Consequently, anyone from a criminal to a terrorist can buy this kit and in as little as 30 minutes put together a weapon. I want to see these kits treated as firearms under the gun control act which is going to require that the seller and manufacturers make the key parts with serial numbers and run background checks on the buyers when they walk in to buy the package.”The justice department is also publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own “red-flag” laws. Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow police to confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.“Red-flag laws can stop mass shooters before they can act out their violent plan,” Biden said.The department will also issue, within 60 days, proposed rules that make clear that devices marketed as “stabilising braces”, effectively turning pistols into rifles, will be subject to the National Firearms Act, which requires the registration of firearms. Other measures include a justice department report on arms trafficking for the first time since 2000.In addition, the White House will provide more than $1bn in funding for evidence-based community intervention and prevention. And Biden nominated a gun control advocate, David Chipman, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.But many of his election campaign promises – such as banning assault weapons altogether and requiring background checks for most gun sales – require congressional action. He urged the Senate to pass bills to close loopholes that allow gun buyers to avoid background checks, and curb firearms access for people found by courts to be abusers.“They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress, but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence. Enough prayers. Time for some action.”Thursday’s executive actions were praised by gun violence prevention campaigners as a promising start. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Sense in America, told the MSNBC network: “We are thrilled about what happened today. This is a huge victory for the gun safety movement. We applaud President Biden for his strong leadership.”Brian Lemek, executive director of the Brady political action committee, which is focused on gun violence, added: “What couldn’t be more clear today is that elections matter. Joe Biden has been a gun-violence-prevention champion for decades and today he continues to be one … Now he needs a partner, and we urge Congress to come to the table and pass the bipartisan, common sense solutions that will keep our children and our families safe.”But the top Republican in the House, Kevin McCarthy, raised instant objections. “President Biden plans to announce his attempts to trample over our constitutional 2A rights by executive fiat,” McCarthy tweeted. “He is soft on crime, but infringes on the rights of law-abiding citizens.”And the National Rifle Association vowed to fight Biden’s moves. Amy Hunter, a spokeswoman, said: “Biden has made clear his sights are set on restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners while ignoring criminals and foregoing substantive measures that will actually keep Americans safe.” More