But the new controls probably wouldn’t have prevented several of the grisly mass shootings around the country that have led to demands for tighter gun laws, and may affect only a fraction of the nation’s 30,000 annual gun deaths.
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Republicans have expressed outrage at Obama’s unilateral gun control push, and they are likely to search quickly for fast-moving legislation to attach provisions to overturn the president’s executive actions.
The measures would tighten rules on who must register as a gun dealer, narrow a “gun show” loophole that allows buyers to dodge background checks, and crack down on “straw purchases” of weapons through intermediaries.
The president would also invest $500 million in mental illness treatment and require federal mental health records to be submitted to the background check system. The Democratic front-runner said she would look into going even further than Obama on the issue if she were elected to succeed him.
So it was that CT was well represented at the White House on Tuesday – by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, members of Congress, Sandy Hook parents – as the president rolled out his plan to use executive powers to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.
Obama accused the gun lobby of taking Congress hostage, but said “they can not hold America hostage”.
Invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Obama said, “We need to feel the fierce urgency of now”. “The folks in this room will not rest until Congress does”. “It won’t happen overnight, it won’t happen during this Congress, it won’t happen during my presidency”.
“From Day 1”, he said, “the president has never respected the right to safe and legal gun ownership that our nation has valued since its founding”. Because our right to worship freely and safely-that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina, and that was denied Jews in Kansas City, and that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hills, and Sikhs in Oak Creek. “They had rights, too”. Our unalienable right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg and from high schoolers in Columbine and from first graders in Newtown…. The next president can undo his executive orders and Congress must approve his requests for more money – something the Republican-dominated branch is unwilling to do.
“As the state’s chief legal officer, I am concerned about public safety and strongly support efforts to reduce gun violence in our communities”.
President Obama’s plan would require any one who sells firearms to be licensed and conduct background checks or be subject to prosecution.
“But I think by and large the state legislature and governor have not touched these issues because of opposition from the NRA”, said Barrett. “We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world”, he added. “But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence”, he said.
Mr. Obama’s exercise of executive power should save some lives. “But we also can’t wait”.
“Additionally, the President plans to prohibit certain Social Security recipients from legally owning firearms”.
“Rather than focus on criminals and terrorists, he goes after the most law-abiding of citizens”, said Ryan, R-Wis. The Republican presidential candidates all rejected the president’s proposals. Sen.
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“No matter what President Obama says, his word does not trump the Second Amendment”. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson tweeted Obama’s actions “have everything to do with advancing his political agenda and nothing to do with actually protecting American citizens”. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a separate interview with MSNBC.
