“I applaud the President’s decision to take a stand and act, even as Congress continues to delay”.
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“People are dying and the constant excuses for inaction no longer do, no longer suffice”, he said.
It linked to a Cruz campaign website featuring Obama dressed in military-style garb, next to the headline, “Obama wants your guns”.
“The fact that Congress refuses to act and pass a national law that protects the American people while also respecting their second amendment rights defies common sense”. “I don’t know I mean it’s at least something that could help with that”, said Addy Metcalfe of Ames.
Before the president spoke, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
“That changed me, that day”, he said, after being introduced by Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son was killed in the shooting.
“The President isn’t circumventing Congress – he is doing what is clearly in his authority to do.”
Adding to that Obama’s initiatives will close the existing gun show background check loophole and enable research on gun safety tech.
But his decision to move ahead on his own has caused outrage among Republicans, who say that the President is abusing the power of his office by attempting to expand background checks without the approval from lawmakers.
Mr Obama also announced a crack down on “straw purchases” in which weapons are bought through intermediaries, and $500 million in extra funding to treat mental illness.
While there’s controversy over the way Obama is going about it, there’s broad agreement on the substance of his action, according to national polls.
The normally stoic and cool president could not contain his emotions during his address. At one point, he grew visibly emotional and wiped away tears as he recalled the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six teachers dead.
Obama became more impassioned as he continued his speech.
“Our inalienable right to life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high- schoolers in Columbine, and from first graders in Newtown”, he said.
Ensure States are providing records to the background check system, and work cooperatively with jurisdictions to improve reporting.
“Pretty soon you won’t be able to get guns”, he said. The group seeks to prevent gun-related deaths through the enactment of what it calls “sensible gun violence prevention laws, policy and regulations”.
The White House also put sellers on notice that the administration planned to strengthen enforcement – including deploying 230 new examiners the Federal Bureau of Investigation will hire to process background checks. This includes 84 percent of people living in households with guns.
It all goes along with the narrative propagated by politicians (but not so much gun owners) that any legal requirement that gets between a citizen and their gun must be so prohibitive as to violate the second amendment.
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“We maybe can’t save everybody, but we can save some”, Obama said.
