“I’m very encouraged and I’m really thankful to the president for taking these executive actions to reduce gun violence”, Brock said.
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Wiping away tears at one point, Obama remembered the 20 children shot to death in 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in CT.
“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad”, Obama said, tears rolling down his cheek.
The administration is also hiring more examiners to carry out background checks, and making technological improvements to the system with the goal of handling requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week and processing any request within the statutory limit of three days – after which a dealer can sell a customer a gun without a check if he has not received a response from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But at gun shows, on websites and at flea markets, sellers can often skirt that requirement by declining to register as licensed dealers. Specifically, he announced his intention to dramatically decrease the number of people selling guns without a proper license, in addition to expanding background checks. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Twitter accused Obama of being “1 of the most liberal and divisive presidents in history”, and vowed to repeal the executive orders, if elected.
“Like all law-abiding Americans and gun owners, I want to prevent future incidents of gun violence and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, but legislation and consensus is the correct approach”, Manchin said in a statement.
“Not to debate the last mass shooting, but to do something to try to prevent the next one”.
Still, Obama’s action is expected to require hundreds more background checks per year. And more than half of voters, 55 percent, said it was too easy to buy a gun, compared with 4 percent who said it was too easy and 36 percent who said it about right. We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we can stop one act of evil, one act of violence.
To lend a personal face to the issue, the White House assembled a cross-section of Americans whose lives were altered by the nation’s most searing recent gun tragedies, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and relatives of victims from Charleston, S.C., at Virginia Tech.
“That changed me, that day”, he said, after being introduced by Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son was killed in the shooting.
“We do have to feel a sense of urgency about it”, the president said.
In lieu of that legislative action, Obama is pushing to reinterpret where the line lies between those who must conduct background checks and those who don’t need to. “Our next President has to build on that progress–not rip it away”.
Others voiced concern about possible Second Amendment infringements.
Montana’s lone congressional Democrat, Sen.
Republican leadership in Congress criticized Obama’s move as an attempt to “politicize” shootings. But House Speaker Paul Ryan predicted a certain challenge in the courts.
“We’re going to do more to help those suffering from mental illness get the help that they need”, he said, adding that the government is going to boost gun safety technology. “His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty”.
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Obama maintained that these steps are within his constitutional authority. He is now the managing director at Sandy Hook Promise, the nonprofit organization run by several families affected by the shooting that aims to reduce gun violence. While the causes of this epidemic of violence are complex, Amnesty welcomes the steps made by the president to address this crisis, which impacts a range of human rights including the right to life and security of the person.
