Joe Biden’s time in the White House, and likely his time as a public-facing power player in Washington, is nearing its end. As the president’s tenure approaches its close, gun violence prevention advocates and political experts have begun to take stock of his record.

Biden made campaign promises on sweeping gun reform, and he entered office with violent crime and gun sales surging. Some of his proposals never materialized, but he also made big swings. Emma Brown, the executive director of the gun violence prevention group Giffords, characterized him as “by far the strongest gun safety president in American history.”

In a new piece, staff writer Alain Stephens chronicles how Biden performed on his promises to reduce gun violence.

From The Trace

What to Know Today 

Two teenagers, ages 18 and 19, filed a federal challenge to a Hawaii law that prohibits people under 21 from owning or acquiring guns, the latest legal attack on the state’s historically tight restrictions. Among the other plaintiffs in the suit is the Second Amendment Foundation; the SAF is linked to a dark-money operation to dismantle America’s gun laws, and frequently acts as a plaintiff and recruits individual plaintiffs for gun rights lawsuits. [Associated Press] 

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees narrowly voted against allowing concealed carry on some parts of campus, following strong opposition from students, employees, and other community members. The decision likely tees up a battle with the state Legislature, which has increasingly pushed to loosen gun laws. [WyoFile] 

Far-right militias that conduct armed “patrols” along the U.S.-Mexico border plan to continue their operations once Donald Trump returns to the White House in January — and some are preparing to amp up their activities. A member of one such “civilian patrol” group said he expects to be a valuable resource in the new administration’s mass deportation scheme. [Wired] 

In 2022, San Diego State University student Tommy Bonds III was arrested during a traffic stop for carrying a concealed firearm that he legally owned. His crime was storing the gun in a seat pocket, a misdemeanor in California that’s more often levied against Black people than white people. The arresting officer seemed to agree that he’d pulled Bonds over partially because he is Black, making the case ripe for dismissal under California’s Racial Justice Act. But four years after the law was enacted, few challenges have succeeded. Bond’s story illustrates the obstacles. [CalMatters] 

A saga over voting and gun rights came to an end in Tennessee — at least for this election. In January, Tennessee’s secretary of state announced that people convicted of a felony needed to get their gun rights restored in order to cast a ballot, prompting a legal back-and-forth between the state officials defending the policy and the judges ruling against it. Six people considered ineligible under the policy cast provisional votes in the November election; last week, Tennessee’s election coordinator reluctantly told local officials to follow a court order and count them. [Associated Press] 

Does the threat of capital punishment actually deter murder? According to one new study, the data doesn’t pan out: An analysis of FBI homicide data from 1987 through 2019 found that states without the death penalty had murder rates lower than the national average; states that abolished the death penalty after 1987 skewed close to the national average; and states that retained the death penalty had murder rates higher than the national average throughout the study period. [Death Penalty Policy Project] 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a hospital system for allegedly barring off-duty police officers from carrying their service weapons at some locations around Houston, court records show. The lawsuit follows similar litigation Paxton pursued against the Texas State Fair, which instituted a gun ban this year in response to a mass shooting, and marks his second spat with the hospital system in two years. [Houston Chronicle]  

Data Point

16 times more — the likelihood that a gun possession charge will be levied against a Black person compared to a white person in California. [CalMatters] 

Non Sequitur

Beep Beep Zip: Video Game Music Goes Classical at Local Orchestra: “Since 2012, the regional orchestra has fused Nintendo and PlayStation fandom with symphonic music.” [The Washington Post] 

Sunny Sone
Sunny is in charge of our newsletters, leading the growth of existing products and dreaming up new ones. They previously worked as a copy editor at The Intercept and as digital editor for the Texas Observer, and co-published a web-only magazine under the Brick House media cooperative. Sunny has covered topics ranging from the Texas funeral industry to the life of visionary composer Pauline Oliveros. They hold a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.