U.S. Attorney General
William Barr on Wednesday announced a new effort to prevent mass shootings through court-ordered counseling and supervision of potentially violent individuals. The effort, announced in a memo to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, follows dozens of deadly mass shootings in the
United States this year, including a massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso,
Texas, and another just one day later in Dayton, Ohio, in which nine people were killed. The
FBI was given expanded powers after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to investigate foreign terrorism threats.