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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2021)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2021 Biden administration halts sale of federal archives building By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Andrew Harnik/AP Photo President Joe Biden speaks about gun violence prevention in the Rose Garden at the White House on Thursday. Biden tightens gun controls By ALEXANDRA JAFFE, AAMER MADHANI and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON — Pres- ident Joe Biden, in his fi rst gun control measures since taking offi ce, announced a half-dozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an interna- tional embarrassment.” “The idea that we have so many people dying every sin- gle day from gun violence in America is a blemish on our character as a nation,” Biden said during remarks at the White House. He announced he is tight- ening regulations for buy- ers of “ghost guns” — home- made fi rearms that usually are assembled from parts and often lack serial numbers used to trace them. Also, a pro- posed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces like the one used in Boulder, Colorado, in a shooting last month that left 10 dead. On Thursday, family mem- bers whose children were killed at the Sandy Hook, Connecticut, school massa- cre in 2012 and the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Doug- las High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 attended the hearing. Biden thanked them for attending, saying he under- stood it would remind them of the awful days when they got the calls. He assured them, “We’re absolutely determined to make change.” Biden’s Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge the president made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” to address gun violence, after a series of mass shoot- ings drew renewed attention to the issue. His announce- ment came the same day as yet another, this one in South Carolina, where fi ve people were killed. Biden emphasized the ‘THE IDEA THAT WE HAVE SO MANY PEOPLE DYING EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA IS A BLEMISH ON OUR CHARACTER AS A NATION.’ President Joe Biden scope of the problem: Between the mass killings in Atlanta massage busi- nesses and the Colorado grocery store shooting last month, there were more than 850 additional shootings that killed 250 and injured 500 in the U.S., he said. But Thursday’s announce- ment underscores the lim- itations of Biden’s execu- tive power to act on guns. His orders tighten regula- tions on homemade guns and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda he laid out on the campaign trail. Indeed, Biden again urged Congress to act, call- ing on the Senate to take up House-passed measures clos- ing background check loop- holes. He also said Congress should pass the Violence Against Women Act, elimi- nate legal exemptions for gun manufacturers and ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. “This is not a partisan issue among the American people,” Biden insisted. While Biden asserted that he’s “willing to work with anyone to get it done,” gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unifi ed against most proposals. Biden was joined at the event by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland said he was “under no illusions about how hard it is to solve the problem of gun violence” and emphasized a need for a “collective eff ort to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and save lives.” The Justice Department cannot solve the problem by itself, he said, but “there is work for the department to do, and we intend to do it.” It is legal to build a “ghost gun” in a home or a workshop, and there is no federal require- ment for a background check. The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule requiring such gun kits be treated as fi rearms under the Gun Control Act, which would require that the parts be made with serial numbers and that buyers receive back- ground checks. Months before Biden was elected, the federal govern- ment had already been work- ing on a proposed rule that would change the defi nition of a fi rearm to include lower receivers, the essential piece of a semiautomatic rifl e, in an eff ort to combat the prolifera- tion of ghost guns and to stave off losing court battles over the issue. The process had been in the works in the waning months of the Trump admin- istration, according to four WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 NOW HIRING PART-TIME SALES & CASHIERS We offer: • Terrific Work Environment • Product Training • Flexible Scheduling • Merchandise Discounts For career-minded individuals, we offer a fully outlined MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM. Apply online at www.big5.com/careers Contact the store for more details. 180 SE Neptune Drive, 503-861-0722. BIG 5 CORP IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER people familiar with the mat- ter. Justice Department lead- ers and offi cials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire- arms and Explosives had been working on language for a proposed rule since at least the summer of 2020, the peo- ple said. Another change announced Thursday concerns a proposed rule that will designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifl es, which require a federal license to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 tax. The department also is publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own “red fl ag” laws. Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow the police to con- fi scate weapons from a per- son deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. SEATTLE — The Biden administration has halted its predecessor’s decision to sell the federal archives building in Seattle, fol- lowing months of opposi- tion from people across the Pacifi c Northwest and a lawsuit. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Sen. Maria Cant- well, both Washington state Democrats, announced Thursday that the federal Offi ce of Management and Budget had withdrawn its approval for the sale, which would have forced the trans- fer of millions of records to facilities in Kansas City, Missouri, and Riverside, California. A federal judge had already temporarily blocked the sale, pending a lawsuit by Washington, Oregon and more than two dozen Native American and Alaska Native tribes. Last month, 25 of the 26 members of Congress from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska signed a letter by Cantwell and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, urging the Biden administration to reverse course. “While this process never should have begun in the fi rst place without Tribal and local consultation, I’m glad that OMB has listened to local Tribes and reversed their decision to approve the sale of the Seattle Archive building,” Murray said in a news release. “I will con- tinue working to ensure the generations of artifacts and history stored in the Seattle facility will remain acces- sible to stakeholders across the Pacifi c Northwest.” The records at the National Archives facil- ity date to the 1840s and include documents key to the histories of 272 federally recognized tribes in Wash- ington, Alaska, Oregon and Idaho. It houses all federal records generated in the Pacifi c Northwest, includ- ing military service, land, court, tax, marriage and cen- sus documents. The documents also include records of Japanese Americans sent to intern- ment camps during World War II. There are 50,000 fi les related to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which lim- ited the presence of Chinese laborers in the U.S. from 1882 until 1943, including photos and interrogations of Chinese immigrants. Only a tiny fraction of the records have been digi- tized, and the facility is fre- quently used for research related to genealogy, land use and water rights, treaties and other historical topics. Tom Wooten, chairman of the Samish Indian Nation near Anacortes, Washing- ton, noted Thursday that tribes have often resorted to the archives to vindi- cate their treaty rights and their oral traditions. He has researched his own family history there, he said. “This material is too important and too valuable to leave this area,” Woo- ten said. “You have to know where you come from. There’s no way folks could go to Kansas City or Cal- ifornia to do that kind of research.” The little-known Public Buildings Reform Board, which was created in 2016 to help sell off surplus fed- eral property, decided in late 2019 to sell the National Archives building under the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act. The Offi ce of Management and Budget approved it in early 2020.