At Least $4.5 Billion in New Spending for Gun Control

President Obama and Vice President Biden revealed their proposed reforms intended to reduce firearms related violence.

The proposal contains a mix of executive actions, regulations, and calls for Congress to act legislatively. The total package will cost at least $4.5 billion in new spending.

Among the new spending the president proposed:

• “$4 billion for the president’s proposal “to help keep 15,000 cops on the streets in cities and towns across the country.” (That is roughly $266,000 per police officer.)
• “$20 million to “give states stronger incentives to make [relevant] data available [for background checks] … “$50 million for this purpose in FY2014”
• “$14 million to help train 14,000 more police officers and other public and private personnel to respond to active shooter situations.”
• “$10 million for the Centers for Disease Control to conduct further research, including investigating the relationship between video games, media images, and violence.”
• “$20 million to expand the National Violent Death Reporting System.
• “$150 million to “put up to 1,000 new school resource officers and school counselors on the job.”
• “$30 million of one-time grants to states to help their school districts develop and implement emergency management plans.”
• “$50 million to help 8,000 schools “create safer and more nurturing school climates.”
• “$15 million to “provide “Mental Health First Aid” training for teachers.”
• “$40 million for school districts to “work with law enforcement, mental health agencies, and other local organizations to assure students with mental health issues or other behavioral issues are referred to the services they need.”
• “$25 million for state-based strategies that support “young people ages 16 to 25 with mental health or substance abuse issues.”
• “$25 million to “offer students mental health services for trauma or anxiety, conflict resolution programs, and other school-based violence prevention strategies.”
• “$50 million to “train social workers, counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals.”

The president’s proposals to ban high capacity magazines and “military-style assault weapons” will be costly to implement, if they are passed. Those costs are either unknown or haven’t been released.

The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included the assault weapons and high capacity magazine ban (that expired in 2004), authorized the expenditure of $30.2 billion dollars, or about $45 billion in today’s dollars.

Read original here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/least-45-billion-new-spending-gun-control_696120.html