President Barack Obama’s move to tighten controls on gun sales could discourage some unlicensed private sellers from doing business over the Internet and at gun shows.
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With President Obama poised to act on his own authority to try to stem gun violence, his gun control allies are using big-money donors and shifting tactics to try to remake the political landscape in the national gun debate, challenging and sometimes even besting the powerful National Rifle Association in state-by-state battles. They say some local officials in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and elsewhere have resented the perception of a high-profile, billionaire liberal like Mr. Bloomberg trying to change their gun laws.
The NRA said that law-abiding gun owners were being used as a “scapegoat” by Obama rather than addressing the real threat, arguing that “the fact is that President Obama’s proposals would not have prevented any of the horrific events he mentioned” (Obama referred to the San Bernardino attack several times).
“We do have to feel a sense of urgency”, Obama said.
“His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty”, Ryan said in a statement. Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well.
“I think that some of the people might not be opposed to this if they didn’t make it so cumbersome, make it a little bit easier to get their background checks”, adds McKinlay. I think we can disagree without impugning other people’s motives or without being disagreeable.
There were other victims of gun violence in the room too, from Aurora, Colo.; Charleston, S.C.; Blacksburg, Va., the home of Virginia Tech; Tucson, Ariz.; and other American cities and towns that have suffered from mass shootings. He said Texas “will take every action to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens” but didn’t elaborate.
“While the President complains about congressional inaction, Congress is already working on mental health legislation that will improve treatment and ensure guns are kept out of the hands of the mentally unstable”.
“The people have spoken and this president now wants to go around the people”, Christie said.
Obama’s 10-point plan to keep guns from those who shouldn’t have them marked a concession by the president: He’ll leave office without securing the new gun control laws he’s repeatedly and desperately implored Congress to pass. The president said that requirement should be coupled with speedier background checks, $500 million for mental health and hiring 200 more ATF agents. “By defining what an “occasional seller” is, the president is essentially interpreting the law, a job reserved for the courts”, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, said in a FoxNews.com opinion piece.
Whether the new steps will effectively prevent future gun deaths remained unclear. “We’re going to need Congress to engage – and engage substantively – on these issues”. While bypassing a Congress (especially one with a majority that is not in line with the sitting president’s party) may not be the most celebrated way of passing policy, executive actions and orders aren’t the path to democratic destruction.
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Offering a drastically different take on the executive actions, however, Republican presidential hopeful and Florida Sen. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 23 million background checks were performed in 2015, almost three times the 8.5 million performed in 2000. Shelby seem to be in a heated contest to see who can disparage Obama the loudest.
