民主党全国代表大会的代表们周一晚上批准了他们的纲领，并努力遏制枪支暴力当务之急。
92页2024 DNC平台称赞了美国总统乔·拜登和接替他的民主党提名人副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在打击美国枪支暴力祸害方面所做的工作。
该平台有五页多一点的篇幅致力于民主党承诺在枪支安全、改善治安和公共安全、改造从监狱释放的人以及保护妇女免受暴力侵害方面做些什么。
“所有美国人都应该免于恐惧:相信他们的孩子会从商店或游乐场安全回家，并知道他们所爱的人会在街头巡逻后安全回家，”政纲草案称。
这份文件是在拜登离开2024年竞选之前写的，并于7月获得了民主党全国委员会规则委员会的批准。自从哈里斯在7月下旬取代拜登成为民主党候选人以来，该网站没有大幅更新。
民主党全国委员会在周一发布的一份声明中说:“这是对拜登总统和哈里斯副总统携手完成的历史性工作的有力声明，并为我们作为一个国家和一个政党在未来四年可以继续发展的进步议程提供了愿景。”
与此同时，在上个月的共和党全国代表大会上，几乎没有人承认美国的枪支暴力祸害，尽管共和党总统候选人前总统唐纳德·特朗普是一名挥舞AR-15式步枪的刺客的受害者。
在2024年共和党大会平台，没有提到枪支暴力或枪支管制。然而，在2020年，该党的政纲包含三个段落，支持互惠立法，允许美国人在所有50个州携带枪支，无论他们在哪个州获得携带许可证，并反对攻击性武器禁令，反对针对枪支制造商的“无聊”诉讼和“任何未经正当法律程序剥夺个人持有和携带武器权利的努力。”
全国步枪协会已经支持特朗普-万斯的竞选。
全国步枪协会执行副主席兼首席执行官道格·哈姆林(Doug Hamlin)在7月份的一份声明中表示:“现在，自由和自由比以往任何时候都更需要勇敢和正直的捍卫者。”。“特朗普总统和万斯参议员有勇气和毅力坚定不移地支持第二修正案。”
哈里斯于2023年9月被拜登任命监督有史以来第一个白宫枪支暴力预防办公室，她在密尔沃基的第一次总统竞选集会上明确表示，枪支管制是重中之重。
哈里斯在密尔沃基集会上说:“我们相信每个人都应该有远离枪支暴力恐怖的自由，最终将通过红旗法、普遍背景调查和攻击性武器禁令。”
民主党全国委员会平台吹捧两党的《更安全社区法案》(Safer Communities Act)，这是拜登在2022年6月签署的30年来第一部重要的枪支安全法，大约一个月前，一名十几岁的枪手在德克萨斯州乌瓦尔迪的罗布小学(Robb Elementary School)杀害了19名学生和两名教师。该法律加强了对21岁以下枪支购买者的背景调查，填补了所谓的“男友漏洞”，以防止被判犯有家庭暴力罪的人购买枪支，并拨款7.5亿美元帮助各州实施“红旗法”，以消除被认为对自己和他人有危险的人的枪支。
根据枪支暴力档案(GVA)一个跟踪全国枪击事件的网站，今年有10，759人死于故意恶意或意外枪击。2023年，共有18854人死于恶意或意外枪击，2022年为20390人。
今年，至少有19人在352起大规模枪击事件中丧生，GVA将其定义为在一次事件中有四人或四人以上被枪杀，不包括枪手。根据GVA的数据，2023年，有40人在656起大规模枪击事件中丧生，36人在2022年发生的646起大规模枪击事件中遭到致命枪击。
根据GVA的数据，今年有900多名17岁及以下的儿童在枪击事件中丧生，其中包括154名11岁以下的儿童。根据GVA的数据，2023年，1682名17岁及以下的儿童在枪击中丧生，2022年有1694名儿童被枪杀。
民主党全国委员会平台强调，在拜登的领导下，美国2023年的谋杀率出现了历史上最大幅度的下降，暴力犯罪降至50年来的最低水平之一。
大城市警察协会的暴力犯罪调查发现与2022年相比，2023年美国近70个大城市的凶杀案出现了两位数的下降。但官员们表示，这些数字仍不像疫情爆发前那么低。
“枪支暴力流行病是撕裂我们社区的祸害;这是儿童和青少年死亡的主要原因，”DNC平台声明。“在学校、杂货店、教堂、舞厅和夜总会的大规模枪击事件，以及每天在家中和街上的枪支暴力，摧毁了美国家庭。”
民主党全国委员会的纲领指出，民主党人决心建立全国性的普遍背景调查和红旗法律，以防止枪支落入被认为对自己和他人构成危险的人手中。根据该纲领，该党还希望禁止攻击性武器和大容量弹匣，要求安全储存枪支，并结束枪支行业的责任豁免，“这样枪支制造商就再也无法逃脱责任。”
“而且，因为枪支暴力流行病是一场公共卫生危机，我们将资助疾病控制中心(CDC)和国家卫生研究院(NIH)的枪支暴力研究以及社区暴力干预，”DNC平台表示。
Gun violence among top issues in DNC Platform
Delegates at the Democratic National Convention approved their platform Monday night and made efforts to curbgun violencea top priority.
The 92-page2024 DNC Platformtouted the work President Joe Biden and the Democratic nominee to replace him, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made on combating the scourge of gun violence in America.
A little over five pages of the platform have been dedicated to what the Democrats pledge to do about gun safety, improving policing and public safety, rehabilitating people released from prisons and protecting women against violence.
"All Americans deserve freedom from fear: to be confident that their children will come home safely from the store or the playground, and to know that their loved one will come home safely from their shift policing the streets," the draft platform states.
The document was written before Biden left the 2024 race and was approved by the DNC's Rules Committee in July. It was not updated significantly since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in late July.
"It makes a strong statement about the historic work that President Biden and Vice President Harris have accomplished hand-in-hand and offers a vision for a progressive agenda that we can build on as a nation and as a Party as we head into the next four years," The DNC said in a statement released Monday.
Meanwhile, there was little acknowledgment of the nation's gun violence scourge at the Republican National Convention last month, despite GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump being the victim of a would-be assassin wielding an AR-15-style rifle.
In the 2024GOP convention platform, there was no mention of firearm violence or gun control. In 2020, however, the party's platform contained three paragraphs supporting reciprocity legislation allowing Americans to carry firearms in all 50 states regardless of which state they received a carry permit, and opposing an assault weapons ban, "frivolous" lawsuits against gun manufacturers and "any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law."
The National Rifle Association has endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.
"Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders," Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. "President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment."
Harris, who was appointed in September 2023 by Biden to oversee the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, made it clear in her first presidential campaign rally in Milwaukee that gun control is a top priority.
"We who believe that every person should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban," Harris said at the Milwaukee rally.
MORE: JD Vance and Tim Walz claim to be 2nd Amendment stalwarts. But where do the VP picks really stand on guns?
The DNC Platform touts the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety law enacted in 30 years that Biden signed in June 2022, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The law enhances background checks for gun buyers under 21, closes the so-called "boyfriend loophole" to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing guns and allocates $750 million to help states implement "red flag laws" to remove firearms from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) a website that tracks shootings across the nation, 10,759 people have died this year from wilful malicious or accidental shootings. In 2023, a total of 18,854 people were killed in malicious or accidental shootings, and 20,390 in 2022.
At least 19 people have been killed this year in 352 mass shootings -- which the GVA defines as four or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter. In 2023, 40 people were killed in 656 mass shootings, and 36 people were fatally shot in 646 mass shootings that occurred in 2022, according to the GVA.
More than 900 children 17 years old and younger, including 154 under the age of 11, have been killed in shootings this year, according to the GVA. In 2023, 1,682 children 17 years old and younger were killed in shootings, and 1,694 were fatally shot in 2022, according to the GVA.
The DNC Platform emphasizes that under Biden, the nation's 2023 murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history and violent crime fell to one of the lowest in 50 years.
The Major Cities Police Association'sViolent Crime Surveyfound double-digit declines in homicide across nearly 70 of America's largest cities in 2023 compared to 2022. But the numbers are still not as low as they were before the pandemic, officials said.
"The gun violence epidemic is a scourge ripping apart our communities; it is the leading cause of death for children and teens," the DNC Platform states. "Mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, dancehalls, and nightclubs, as well as daily gun violence at home and on streets, devastate American families."
The DNC Platform states that the Democrats are determined to establish national universal background checks and red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed a danger to themselves and others. According to the platform, the party also wants a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns and end the gun industry's immunity from liability "so gunmakers can no longer escape accountability."
"And, because the gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis, we will fund gun violence research across the Centers for Disease Control [CDC] and National Institutes of Health [NIH] as well as community violence interventions," the DNC platform states.
