How to make America safe again

OPINION:

President-elect Donald Trump’s election mandate includes making America safe again.

Today, urban areas are dominated by violent crime, and college campuses are not safe for young people to take a jog. In many jurisdictions across the nation, Democrats’ policies allow gangs, alien cartel members, human smugglers and drug traffickers to hide in plain sight without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Given the failure of the current leadership, it’s incumbent upon the president-elect and the incoming Congress to quickly reverse course, and there are several concrete steps they can take to quickly execute that mission.

First and foremost, Mr. Trump should scrap the failed White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and replace it with a specialized team to prepare for the real war effort on violent crime. While a Cabinet will not immediately be in place to execute the mission, this new office could be.

Like the proposed Department of Government Efficiency to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, this team would inform Mr. Trump of the pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration and anti-gun policies and bureaucrats, programs and offices that will try to stymie his agenda. This new office could be called the White House Office of Violent Crime Prevention.

Next, the Department of Justice’s attention must be redirected to real criminals rather than the innocent Americans who faced prosecution for lawfully owning guns, attending school board meetings or, in the case of Mr. Trump, seeking political office.

U.S. attorneys will also play a critical role here. When soft-on-crime local prosecutors, cashless bail and sanctuary city policies shield dangerous criminals, the feds can step in and put these individuals behind bars or transfer them to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation.

While certainly not a foreign concept, during the Biden administration, many federal prosecutors have eschewed their responsibility to prosecute crime. In the District of Columbia alone, 500 known criminals commit 70% of violent gun-related crimes. Yet in fiscal 2022, the U.S. attorney declined to prosecute two-thirds of those arrested by D.C. police — a staggering figure. It’s no wonder crime is up 40% in the nation’s capital year over year.

Any effort to make America safe again should start by making our nation’s capital safe again. Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over the District, and action to rein in the city’s crime crisis could create a compelling example for the nation. When members of Congress are being carjacked and juveniles commit nearly 60% of these violent offenses, the feds must act. Our nation’s capital should be a shining example of law and order, not a cesspool of violent crime.

Next, the incoming Congress must send the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to the president’s desk. This will empower everyday Americans to protect themselves and their loved ones in public. This policy will have a deterrent effect: Criminals won’t be keen to act where their targets or bystanders may shoot back. Ensuring that all Americans can exercise this right, including across state lines, is critical, and Mr. Trump has already floated his support.

And rather than waiting for the next gun debate, the White House should proactively help law enforcement arrest and prosecute “true threats” — a highly successful but underfunded tool to combat threats of mass violence.

The Trump administration should also urge the press to voluntarily mitigate the “media contagion effect” and begin denying mass killers the attention that motivates them to commit heinous crimes. News outlets would adopt voluntary practices to avoid using the names and photographs of mass killers in news coverage or online. Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has spoken on this phenomenon many times, and his arguments are supported by academic research.

The incoming Trump administration also has an opportunity to depoliticize crime and self-defense data to restore trust in federal agencies. Americans knew the Biden administration was playing fast and loose with crime statistics. We’ve seen this administration backpedal on the misinformation stemming from its efforts to gaslight Americans into a false sense of security. Restoring accurate crime data is an important next step.

Mr, Trump has an incredible opportunity to seize the narrative from Democrats on how to reduce crime. Voters in red states and blue states rejected President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ hyperbolic anti-gun grandstanding and soft-on-crime policies by giving the president-elect his commanding Electoral College and popular vote wins. Now it’s time to get to work.

As constitutionalists, we know the problem isn’t guns. By executing the concrete steps laid out above, coupled with an effective detention and deportation program, Mr. Trump can leave a lasting impression on voters and demonstrate how we actually make America safe again.

The lasting effect of these policies will go well beyond executive orders that the next president can quickly rescind. As a bonus, odds are this will only expand Mr. Trump’s coalition of support.

• Ryan Petty is a Second Amendment advocate, a member of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission and vice chair of the Florida State Board of Education. Follow @rpetty. Aidan Johnston is director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, a “no compromise” grassroots lobbying organization with over 2.5 million members nationwide. Follow @RealGunLobbyist.