“It’s clear that common-sense gun reform won’t happen during this Congress”, Mr Obama wrote.
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Obama strongly refuted allegations that he wants to take everybody’s gun, describing it as a conspiracy.
“Let’s have a conversation”, said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama. “And I’m going to throw my shoulders behind folks who want to actually solve problems instead of just getting a high score from an interest group”. “When would I have started on this enterprise?” And the police, who feel under constant attack, have pulled back in some cities, like Baltimore, contributing to the upsurge in gun crimes by thugs who don’t think they will be caught. He said the NRA was refusing to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples.
Mr Obama, taking the stage at George Mason University in Virginia, said he has always been willing to meet the NRA. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is still famous for a 2010 campaign ad in which he touted his National Rifle Association support by shooting a copy of a cap-and-trade environmental bill with a hunting rifle.
“There is a reason why the NRA is not here”, Obama said. “And since this is the main reason they exist, you’d think they be prepared to have a debate with the president”.
A more recent mass shooting at an OR college led the president to consider anew ways he could act on his own authority on guns.
The American Firearms Retailers Association, another lobby group, did participate.
It was the kind of civilized exchange that some Americans thought they were in line for when Obama took office in 2009 promising to cleanse American politics of its “petty grievances” and “recriminations and worn-out dogmas”. He also raised serious concerns about smart gun trigger lock technology, which uses fingerprint recognition or other biometric information to prevent any unauthorized person from firing the weapon.
The White House has said that the town hall will include Americans of all beliefs on the hot-button topic of gun control.
“You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko?”
President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence, which local officials and activists characterize as a modest step in the right direction.
Earlier this week, Obama unveiled a set of executive actions that narrow the “gun-show loophole” by requiring firearm dealers to issue tougher background checks on prospective buyers.
In the wake of December’s San Bernardino shooting, where Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, killed 14 people with legally purchased assault weapons, the New York Times published a front-page editorial calling for an end to gun violence.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, used the town hall as a fundraising and recruiting tool, tweeting out, “Obama’s gun control policies bypass Congress & infringe on your #2A right”.
As the president appeared before a audience of 100 partisans on both sides of the debate at George Mason – and was beamed into the living rooms of homes in red and blue states on the live CNN broadcast – his efforts to bridge the cultural divide on guns looked increasingly hopeless.
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Rep. Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma, a supporter of Cruz and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted, “No one asked about whether a Social Security Admin. bureaucrat should decide who loses their constitutional rights?” His motorcade drove past a crowd holding several dozen signs welcoming him – and an equal number protesting and making clear their opposition to any change to gun laws.
