While Republican lawmakers are almost unanimous in their opposition to any expansion of gun control laws, the public – including gun owners – broadly supports requiring background checks for gun sales, including those at shows and from private collections.
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“The president is a petulant child” who wants to “act as if he’s a king, as if he’s a dictator”, said Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) ahead of Mr. Obama’s Monday meeting. But Americans are split on whether such regulation would reduce the number of mass shootings in the nations.
“He exploited everyone in the room to promote something he knows nothing about”, said Caso’s owner Frank Caso, referring to Obama’s teary announcement of the actions today at the White House. And this was just one website within the span of a few months.
While any change in the law would have to overcome threats of a presidential veto, gun rights supporters have another avenue they could pursue in the courts. But even with added manpower, there’s no way to completely eliminate human error like the clerical mistakes that allowed Dylann Roof, the young man charged in the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre, to buy a weapon even though he should have been disqualified after an earlier drug arrest.
‘The problem is, some gun sellers have been operating under a different set of rules’. They are simply more loyal to gun lobbyists than our children. The seller was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to an illegal sale.
“We do have to feel a sense of urgency about it”, he said. “But I certainly have absolute confidence that it will be enough deaths that will be avoided that makes this worth it”.
It was part of an executive action on gun control introduced Tuesday at the White House. Current law says gun sales can go forward if a background check isn’t completed within three days.
He said Americans need to be “just as passionate” as the NRA in changing gun laws, but acknowledged it won’t happen during his final year in office. Guns move across city and state lines and all too easily from legal ownership to criminal possession.
As the above map shows, East Coast states tend to have higher scores when it comes to gun laws. He went online to say he was “looking to buy ASAP”, and made the purchase in the parking lot of a McDonald’s, the lawsuit says. “Here in Boston we will continue to make keeping guns out of the wrong hands a top priority, and thanks to the President’s action we now have strong new tools to make progress nationwide”. In reality, the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, and the vast majority of gun violence is committed by people without mental illness.
“Further scrutiny of law-abiding people will not stop criminals”, he said.
Everytown president John Feinblatt called the clarification a welcome if modest step.
Obama ran through a list of bold-faced conservative names who have supported background checks in the past, including Republican presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Sen. “The Social Security Administration has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons”.
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In a series of measures aimed at reducing gun violence, Obama directed the departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security to “conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology that would reduce the frequency of accidental discharge or unauthorized use of firearms, and improve the tracing of lost or stolen guns”. The president will also be asking the Republican-controlled Congress to back resources for 200 new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives agents.
