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President Joe Biden will sign an executive order aimed to increase gun background checks on Tuesday (March 14), NBC News reports.
A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the president is scheduled to sign the order in Monterey Park, the site of the mass shooting that claimed 11 lives at a gathering for Lunar New Year celebrations in January, during his visit to the West Coast. The executive order would direct Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify rules for federally licensed gun dealers to ensure they know they're required to do background checks as part of the license, which was part of sweeping bipartisan gun legislation signed by Biden last year following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the third-deadliest school shooting in American history.
"This news would mean fewer guns will be sold without background checks, and therefore fewer guns will end up in the hands of felons and domestic abusers," the official told reporters while previewing the order on a call via NBC News.
The National Instant Background Check System conducted more than 31 million background checks on individuals looking to own firearms or explosives in 2022, according to FBI data obtained by NBC News. The Biden administration said it wasn't clear how many new background checks were expected as a result of the executive order.