Gun violence is a public health crisis. That’s why I have a comprehensive gun violence prevention plan—a plan to make big, structural changes to end the NRA and corrupt lawmakers’ ability to block our government from defending the lives of our people. medium.com/@teamwarren/pr…
The statistics are horrifying. Our firearm homicide rate is 25x higher than other comparable countries. Our firearm suicide rate is nearly 10x higher. Women are 21x more likely to be shot to death—most killed by an intimate partner. 21 children and teenagers are shot every day.
It’s easy to despair when our government refuses to act. But we are not incapable of solving big problems. Over fifty years ago, we took big steps to make our cars safer and since then, we reduced per-mile driving deaths by almost 80% and prevented 3.5 million automobile deaths.
In 2017, almost 40,000 people died from guns in the U.S. My goal is to reduce that number by 80%. We’ll start with solutions we believe will work. We’ll update those solutions based on new research—and stop corrupt extremists from blocking action by ending the filibuster.
From the White House, I will take executive action to rein in an out-of-control gun industry. Gun manufacturers make billions by knowingly selling deadly products, and it’s time to hold gun dealers and manufacturers accountable for the violence promoted by these products.
We'll require background checks for the vast majority of private gun sales, including at gun shows and online. We'll extend the existing requirements on reporting bulk gun sales. And we'll raise the minimum age for purchasing a gun.
My administration will also protect survivors of domestic abuse by closing the "boyfriend loophole." And we'll reverse the Trump administration's efforts to weaken gun safety, including rules that enabled 3-D printed guns and make it easier to create untraceable weapons.
I will send Congress comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation and sign it into law within my first 100 days.
This legislation will ensure that safe, responsible ownership is the standard for everyone who chooses to own a gun. We'll create a federal licensing system, require universal background checks, establish a real waiting period, and cap firearms purchases.
In addition to ending the special legal immunity gun manufacturers have now, Congress should hold manufacturers strictly liable for gun-related injuries and give victims of gun violence a private right of action to recover compensatory damages from manufacturers.
Black and Latinx Americans have borne the brunt of the gun violence tragedy. But after being traumatized by gun violence, these communities have been doubly victimized by increased policing and strict sentencing laws.
We have to chart a new path, and that starts with investing in evidence-based community violence intervention designed to stop gun violence before it occurs. As president, I’ll establish a grant program to invest in and pilot intervention programs at scale.
And we'll revisit this legislation every year—adding new ideas and tweaking existing ones—to keep reducing the number of gun deaths in America. My budget will invest $100 million for DOJ and HHS to study gun violence, evaluate the reforms we pass, and suggest new ones.
The dialogue about gun violence in America is shifting, thanks to the work of activists, organizers, community leaders, and survivors. It's time to turn our heartbreak and anger into action, and take power from the NRA and corrupt lawmakers and return it to the people.
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This year, nearly 300k Americans got hit with sledgehammer news that they have prostate cancer. Then came another sledgehammer: the cost of treatment. A drug called Xtandi could save their lives but costs up to $190,000/year. It’s a familiar story of corporate greed.
Taxpayer dollars helped develop Xtandi. Just to show what chumps Big Pharma makes of Americans, Astellas—the company that manufactures Xtandi—charges U.S. customers as much as six times more than patients in other countries.
The Biden-Harris administration is fighting back against Big Pharma’s greed: under a new proposal, if taxpayer dollars helped develop a drug—and if the company holding the patent has blocked access by jacking up the price—other companies could produce lower-cost generics.
Two years ago today, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It’s been a big win for Massachusetts—with $6 billion announced so far to repair roads and bridges, expand broadband, replace lead pipes, electrify buses, and more. Here are just a few examples:
I never thought I’d run for office. But 12 years ago today, I launched a campaign to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate—because it was a way to keep fighting for a country that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected.
I started out 17 points down. My opponent had heaps of campaign cash from Wall Street. But we ran a grassroots campaign. This was the crowd at our first organizing meeting later that fall. Person to person, we built a movement, and we won. #TBT
The past 12 years have shown us that when we organize, fight righteous fights, and hold those in power accountable, we can make positive change. Like taxing giant corporations. Lowering the cost of hearing aids. Cracking down on rich tax cheats. Funding infrastructure jobs.
When we get organized and get in the fight, we can beat back powerful special interests and make real change. Here’s how we achieved the biggest advance in corporate tax fairness in three decades:
My story doesn’t follow a straight path. I grew up on the ragged edge of the middle class. After my daddy’s heart attack, my family came within an inch from losing our house, but my mother got a minimum wage job at Sears that saved our family.
I dropped out of college at 19 to get married, but got a second chance at a public college that cost $50 a semester and got to live my dream of becoming a public school teacher.
I’ve dedicated my career to studying why families go broke and fighting to rebuild the middle class. After Wall Street crashed our economy, I fought to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has already returned about $16 billion to Americans who’ve been cheated.
My mother’s birthday was Valentine’s Day. We both loved her special connection to the holiday. When I was a girl, I got some heart-shaped pans from the dime store and started baking her a heart-shaped cake every year. I took some time this past weekend to keep up the tradition.
When she was in her 80s, she was in the hospital for some minor surgery. The night before she was scheduled to go home, she said to my daddy, “Don, there's that gas pain again.” Then she died. The autopsy showed she had advanced heart disease—never diagnosed, never treated.
Later, I learned that heart disease is the #1 killer of women. No longer considered just a “man’s disease,” doctors do a much better job screening and treating women for cardiovascular disease today than when my mother had her heart attack.