Fielding questions from CNN’s Anderson Cooper and members of the audience, Obama repeatedly emphasized that the executive actions he unveiled during an emotional address on Tuesday were modest in scope, but necessary steps for a nation plagued by an epidemic of gun violence.
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The NRA was not represented at the event by choice.
That is likely to be the centerpiece of his message at Thursday’s forum, where White House officials said Obama is eager to try to debunk the arguments of those who say new gun laws are not necessary.
The president is angry about gun violence – and rightly so.
Information from The New York Times was included in this story. “When would I have started on this enterprise, right?” While private gun sales can be conducted over the Internet, if the sale involves people in different states, a licensed gun dealer in the state where the gun is going still has to be involved in the transfer.
The president quickly emphasized that he has “respect” for people who want a gun for hunting and sportsmanship, but it “makes sense to keep guns out of hands of people who would do others harm”. “They’re just down the street”, Obama said, referring to the group’s nearby headquarters. Such restrictions would have proven wildly unpopular with voters, even amongst the democratic base, but for a leader who has been so vocal recently about the Republican’s unwillingness to tackle gun violence, one would think unpopularity wouldn’t have swayed the President from doing what he felt was morally right.
The president concluded by acknowledging he wouldn’t win the fight against guns all at once.
Republicans who control Congress made it clear that they oppose the changes, although some downplayed their significance. Such a patient will be unable to buy a gun. People who only occasionally sell guns from their personal collections don’t have to apply for a license.
Mistruths like this (and the ever-repeated gun-show loophole myths) have the United Kingdom and the world over believing that the USA now has no controls on guns.
“At one point Michelle turned to me and said, you know, if I was living a farmhouse where the sheriff’s department is pretty far away and somebody can just turn off the highway and come up to the farm, I’d want to have a shotgun or a rifle to make sure that I was protected and my family was protected”, Obama recounted.
The NRA, the most influential gun rights group in terms of political persuasion and financial contributions, boasts a membership of about five million people.
Gun advocates say criminals will always have guns, so regulations make no difference. “Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying”, Obama said.
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President Obama, as he often does, seems happiest to look overseas for inspiration in how to interpret and follow the Constitution. As the law is today, people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence are only banned from owning guns if they are married to, have children with, or live with their victims. It is a symbolic gesture, more than anything else. But I remain skeptical of the President’s true intents. Executive orders are limited as guidance from the chief executive to federal agencies in the executive branch on how to execute laws that are already on the books (through our representatives in the Senate and House).
