Attorney General Barr announces "Project Guardian" as part of plan to reduce gun violence

As reported in this Hill piece, the "Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday unveiled a program that aims to reduce gun violence including through the creation of guidelines to prosecute those who make false statements while trying to get a gun." Here is more:

The five-point plan includes coordinated prosecution, enforcing the background check system, improved information sharing, a coordinated response for mental health denials, and crime gun intelligence coordination, according to a DOJ statement.

The department seeks to coordinate prosecution under the "Project Guardian" program by considering federal prosecution for those who were arrested for possessing a firearm, are believed to have used a firearm while committing violence or drug trafficking, or who is suspected of actively committing violent crimes in connection with a criminal organization.

To enforce background checks, attorneys general, in connection with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will create or renew guidelines for prosecuting those who make false statements while trying to get a firearm. Those who have been convicted of violent felonies and domestic violence misdemeanors, among others, will be given special emphasis....

Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that the plan shows the DOJ's commitment to reducing gun violence. "Project Guardian will strengthen our efforts to reduce gun violence by allowing the federal government and our state and local partners to better target offenders who use guns in crimes and those who try to buy guns illegally,” he said.

He also said during a press conference in Memphis, Tenn., that the program would be applied with exceptional "vigor" in areas with high levels of gun violence. "We're going to apply it with special vigor where gun violence is the highest, in places like Memphis," he said....

The attorney general said Wednesday that the administration came up with a series of related legislative proposals, but added they could not move forward due to the probe into the president's dealings with Ukraine. “Unfortunately, our discussions on the legislative aspects of this have been sidetracked because of the impeachment process on the Hill and so we are going forward with all of the operational steps,” Barr said.

“We certainly are always willing to pursue legislative measures that will enhance the fight against violent crime but right now it does not appear to things in Washington are amenable to those kinds of negotiations and compromises,” he added.

Gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives, which was founded after a mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Fla., criticized the program as a "racialized" tough-on-crime plan. "We’ve seen racialized ‘tough on crime’ plans before. It doesn’t work," the group tweeted. "We ought to be tough on injustice, economic oppression and inequality. Our country has a gun violence problem. It’s sources vary, but the common factor is easy access to guns."

I cannot help but wonder if, among the shelved legislative proposals, was some follow up on the talk from a few months ago of draft legislation to expedite the death penalty as part of package response to mass shootings. Even without legislative proposals, the announced "Project Guardian" initiative (set forth in this press release with this linked DOJ guidance memo) provides plenty to wonder about in terms of coming prosecutions and sentencings in the federal system.

As noted in this post, just this past Friday Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen highlighted in a speech that the current Justice Department has "increased federal firearm prosecutions by over 40 percent compared to the last two years of the previous administration."  I presume that this uptick in firearm prosecutions will continue and perhaps even accelerate as a result of "Project Guardian."  I would welcome comments from anyone working "on the ground" in the federal criminal justice system about whether and how they think  "Project Guardian" could prove consequential.

UPDATE: The Justice Department has released the text of Attorney General William Barr's remarks in Memphis at the launch of Project Guardian. Here is a snippet:

What we are trying to do is take those Triggerlock principles that were successful in the past and revamp this program, resuscitate it, and double down on it nationwide.

This is a national program.  It will be in every district.  The idea is to use our existing gun laws to incapacitate the most dangerous and violent offenders.  As most of you know, with Project Safe Neighborhoods, which is one of the flagship programs of the Department of Justice, we do go after the armed felons.  But that program is regionally based; we go after particular areas.

Project Guardian is a national initiative to comprehensively attack gun violence through the aggressive enforcement of existing gun laws.

This will be implemented nationwide in every federal district.  We are going to apply pressure with vigor where gun violence is the highest in places like Memphis. Local agencies will be involved, but ATF will be leading this effort.  It will involve all federal law enforcement agencies working closely with our state and local colleagues.