U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich was part of the bipartisan group that negotiated and passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022. Heinrich, D-New Mexico, released a statement Tuesday about a White House report detailing the Act’s implementation and effects two years after it was signed into law.
“Our Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was the most meaningful gun reform in three decades, and it’s working,” Heinrich said in a press release. “I’m proud that the provisions I wrote to make trafficking firearms across our border illegal and increase the penalties for straw purchases have already led to hundreds of arrests and kept firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals. There is still much more we need to do to reduce gun violence, but I’m proud that this law has proven effective at helping law enforcement fight crime and make our communities safer.”
Straw purchases are when someone buys a firearm for someone who otherwise could not legally obtain one.
The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention issued its Report on the Implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June.
The report states that the BSCA helped lower violent crime to “an almost 50 year low.”
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded $94 million in community crime intervention programs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.9 million to New Mexico to help schools identify students needing mental health care and help those students access care through the Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education program.
The Biden administration also awarded $4 million towards hiring and training behavioral health personnel in schools through BSCA funding, the press release states.
Further funding includes more than $7.5 million of BSCA funding in New Mexico for safety plan updates, hiring behavioral health professionals and school resource officers, community violence interventions, security equipment installation and school safety improvements.
Another of the BSCA’s aspects increased penalties for firearm trafficking and straw purchases.
So far, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged more than 500 defendants under the BSCA’s firearm trafficking/straw purchase provisions.
“By increasing penalties for straw purchasing, Heinrich’s provision is helping to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who would use them against our communities. By making it illegal to traffic firearms out of the country, Heinrich’s provision gave law enforcement the tools needed to prosecute and disrupt the flow of firearms to Mexico and the Northern Triangle, fueling the violence that has driven so many to flee their home countries,” the press release states.