US President Joe Biden signed a new executive order on Thursday to combat increasing threats from 3D-printed and converted firearms and improve school's active shooter drills.
The order was signed by Biden during a White House event, weeks before he was supposed to leave the office. Under the order, a new federal task force will be set up to assess the threat posed by machine gun conversion devices, which he said could be 3D-printed for less than 40 cents in less than 30 minutes, reported Reuters.
The task force will also assess threats from other 3D-printed firearms that cannot be detected by security scanners and have no serial numbers, making them hard to trace.
"Enough," Biden said during the event which was attended by over 100 survivors of gun violence including former Representative Gabby Giffords, and relatives of those killed, vowing to keep fighting against gun violence even after he leaves office.
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He said that one gun conversion device, which enables handguns or other semi-automatic firearms to match or exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns, was found on the scene of a mass shooting on Saturday in Alabama that killed four people.
"We're experiencing an epidemic of gun violence," said Vice President Kamala Harris, adding that more children were now killed by guns than any other cause, including car accidents or cancer.
"I believe the right to be safe is a civil right," she said. "People of America have a right to live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence, including gun violence," she added.
The executive order directs federal agencies to develop and publish within 110 days information for US schools, colleges, and universities on how to create, implement, and evaluate evidence-informed active shooter drills. Most of the states in the US require schools to conduct mass shooting drills, but some research has found them ineffective and traumatic to students.