“…from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun, every time I think about those kids it gets me mad”, he said.
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At a press conference Tuesday, he shed a tear over the matter.
Obama has long sought to use the law to curb gun violence, pushing for legislation on universal background checks after the 2012 Newtown massacre, but the proposal ultimately failed in Congress. After the mass shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Ore., in October, he directed staffers to scour existing gun laws for steps he could legally take to strengthen them, apparently concluding that he’d get nowhere with a Republican-led Congress. Until we do something to stop drugs and violence in the inner cities, these problems are not going to go away. “But maybe we can try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence”.
On Tuesday the President announced a number of executive actions to make it harder for risky people to get a hold of guns, that includes penalties for firearms dealers who don’t conduct background checks.
President Obama also called on Congress to increase funding for mental health care and for hiring more background checkers and ATF agents.
But he insisted his actions don’t violate the Constitutional right to bear arms.
Local gun store owner Mark Blote gave us an idea of how he does background checks.
Republicans reacting to the executive actions claim they will no doubt be challenged.
Cummings, who has testified before Congress on gun regulations, said background checks work and expanding checks will work even better.
He added that he didn’t see any dangers in the action either. “He is not clarifying a vagueness of the law, he is adding specifics where already the law provides specifics”. But he has questions about how private dealers at gun shows will be allowed to work in the future.
The order would also erase the gun show loophole, which exempts gun sellers from keeping formal gun records.
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In other words, it was a regular day on the campaign trail for them.
