President Obama will take his new gun control push directly to the public Tuesday morning, announcing several executive orders that seek to expand background checks and close the so-called gun show loophole.
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The Obama administration announced Monday that President Barack Obama will be pursuing executive action for new gun restrictions, a plan that has been criticized by Republican politicians as an overreach of presidential power.
Yet even the more modest steps rely on murky interpretations of existing law that could be easily reversed.
John Rosenthal, co-founder of Newton-based “Stop Handgun Violence”, the non-profit organization that for two decades had hung anti-gun violence billboards along the Massachusetts Turnpike, near Fenway Park, said he would also be meeting with Obama at the White House Tuesday, and participating in the president’s announcement.
Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on buyers.
Mr Obama said the new guidance is “not a plot to take away everyone’s guns”. Also: “ATF is finalizing a rule to require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most unsafe weapons and other items through a trust, corporation, or other legal entity”.
Obama became emotional when recounting the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, which saw 20 children and 6 adult staff members killed.
Say no to that, and all I had to do was hand over the cash and the gun was mine with as much ammunition as I could carry. No matter how many times people try to twist my words – I taught constitutional law, I know a little about this, I get it – but I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment. “It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and the extraordinary loss that they’ve suffered as a outcome of a firearm being in the hands of wrong people”.
“Every time I think of those kids, it gets me mad”.
“Today, we celebrate another example of how President Obama and Vice President Biden continue to keep that promise”, Barden said. Left unsaid was the fact that developing regulations would have dragged out likely until Obama’s presidency ends and would generate more opportunities for Republicans to intervene.
“The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage, but they can not hold America hostage”, he said.
The legality of Obama’s executive actions, though, is expected to be challenged by Republicans.
And instead of shying away from the hot-button issue to avoid angering gun owners in swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has made reducing gun violence a centerpiece of her campaign as has Vermont Sen.
The White House said it planned to ask Congress for $500 million to improve mental health care.
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Any executive action could bring the debate on gun control to the front of the race for the White House, thus far dominated by issues of foreign policy, immigration and national security.
