A series of mass shootings has punctuated Obama’s time in office, and after he failed to convince Congress to toughen up gun laws, the president said he wanted to have a national debate about guns in his final year in office. Now, though, that might be about to change – thanks to Obama’s recent executive actions on guns.
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President Obama will be in Virginia today for a town hall on guns in America. The crux: Americans just don’t believe Obama, who wept openly as he detailed his plan to go after their guns.
Speaking at a CNN forum on gun violence in America, Obama says he can understand why an Iowan living in a rural area would want to own a gun for protection, while gun ownership in Chicago can be more unsafe. He said the NRA refused to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples.
But a senior administration official who’s knowledgeable about the process but isn’t authorized to speak publicly said in December that some of the ideas under consideration now had been discussed in 2013 but “didn’t get to closure” for a number of reasons.
Noting that the National Rifle Association had declined an invitation to the town hall, the president said: “I’m happy to meet with them….”
The American Firearms Retailers Association, another lobby group, did participate. “Ninety Americans, and not just in the “hood but everywhere, 90 Americans die every day in this country due to gun violence”, added the Chi-Raq director, who addressed the issue and consequences of gun violence in the film based in part on Aristophanes” Lysistrata.
Democratic and Republican members of Congress had been deadlocked on legislation that accomplishes what Obama’s executive actions do.
GOP front-runner Donald Trump spoke to a packed Vermont crowd at the same time as the gun forum. The centerpiece is new federal guidance that seeks to clarify who is “in the business” of selling firearms, triggering a requirement to get a license and conduct background checks on all prospective buyers. He said gun violence was “something we should politicize”. Fifty-three percent say they disapprove of Obama’s handling of gun policy in the new poll, while 43 percent approve. Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was injured in an assassination attempt in 2011, and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who is now a gun control advocate, were there.
Meanwhile, Obama admitted on Thursday that he has never owned a gun in his life.
“I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids”, Corban said.
Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate majority leader, conceded as much, saying in a statement, “The people’s elected representatives in Congress will oversee these latest actions to determine whether they follow federal law and the Constitution”.
Even while bashing his opponents, Obama tried to relate to lawful gun-owners, citing his time as a senator from IL, where hunting is popular in the southern part of the state.
Obama doesn’t seem to mind that his announcement this week has pushed the hot-button issue to the front of the presidential campaign, even if it may hurt moderate Democrats in swing congressional districts. Last Modified: Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 6:00 p.m..
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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.
