(Pennsylvania) – President Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to review important progress made by the Biden Administration’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention and implement a plan to reverse them.
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention coordinated a national response to gun violence and helped drive a 38% reduction in Pennsylvania gun homicides between 2022-2024. More than 1,900 Pennsylvanians died from gun violence in the United States in 2023.
Adam Garber, executive director of CeaseFirePA Education Fund, said in a statement:
“This executive order is an overt attack on the progress made in gun violence prevention nationally in the last four years — a decision made to benefit the gun lobby, which has always put profit above the lives of our kids and neighbors. The order comes merely weeks after President Trump quietly shut down the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, ending a landmark program that coordinated a national response to gun violence for the first time in U.S. history.
“The rhetoric surrounding this executive order is wholly disingenuous. Violent crime is down, nationally and in Pennsylvania, and the Second Amendment has not been threatened in the process of violence intervention. The work of the previous Administration and champions in Harrisburg has made our communities safer, but this executive order is a direct attack on that progress and any increase in violence now falls on its shoulders as the order could undermine the regulations on ghost guns and machine gun converters, also known as Glock switches.
“Pennsylvanians – urban and rural, law enforcement officers, gun owners and non-gun owners — are united behind saving lives and making our communities safer through evidence-based solutions. We must stay vocal and vigilant. We will keep fighting alongside communities most impacted by gun tragedies to implement stronger safeguards to keep Pennsylvanians safe, and we call on our state officials to intercede to the extent of their power and mitigate the harm headed our way from Washington.”
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CeaseFirePA Education Fund envisions life without gun violence that allows people from every community across the commonwealth to thrive — where communities feel safe, because they are safe.
