Democratic legislators on Capitol Hill voiced support for President Barack Obama’s executive orders on gun control in a conference call Wednesday, while also criticizing their congressional colleagues for inaction on the volatile issue.
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“Every year, 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns”, the president said at the beginning of his speech.
On Tuesday, Obama announced executive orders that include requiring those selling guns for profit via the Internet, flea markets or gun shows to conduct background checks like those required at licensed gun dealers.
Obama on Tuesday presented a renewed push for further gun regulations, including background checks for firearms purchases through the use of executive action.
“I have been unspeakably victimised once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids”, Corban said.
President Barack Obama rejected the conservative talking point on Thursday that his administration is out to strip guns away from their owners.
“Just because you shop for guns in a way that isn’t through a retail store doesn’t mean you get to avoid the background-check system”, Jarrett said.
“The president has shown us that change is possible”, Warren said.
The gun lobby has blocked gun violence research by the CDC, a computerized crime gun database at the ATF and a registry of gun owners so that we can identify people who have become unstable or radicalized since buying their guns.
In a prime-time, televised town hall meeting, Obama defended his support for the constitutional right to gun ownership while arguing it was consistent with his efforts to curb violence and mass shootings.
His comments, and Obama’s criticism of the NRA, were a reminder of the hyper-partisanship of the guns issue that has helped to hamper any meaningful reforms to stem gun violence during the President’s tenure – and often halted movement on other issues as well. Those who want to avoid a check can easily buy a new gun through an unlicensed vendor.
“I’m happy to talk to them, but the conversation has to be based on facts and truth, and what we’re actually proposing, not some… imaginary fiction in which “Obama’s trying to take away your guns”, Obama said.
Meanwhile, as the president spoke about the importance of gun control, gun stocks like Smith & Wesson and Sturm rose to new highs. I don’t know, when would I have started on this enterprise?
Warren touted MA gun laws, but said they have limited impact when people can simply cross state lines to avoid them.
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On Capitol Hill, Democrats forced a series of gun votes in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate in the aftermath of the terrorist shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 people dead. These executive actions do little more than nudge various sellers who now operate outside the background check system back toward that system. In an interview on Fox News, the NRA’s Chris Cox said Obama was “creating an illusion that he is doing something to keep people safe”. And for numerous most avid gun rights supporters, it is not good public policy to have doctors the final arbiter of deciding who is mentally capable of owning a gun and who is not.
