The truth, of course, is that young people in America’s inner cities die every day because of guns purchased illegally. President Obama’s actions are not only smart and lawful but desperately, morally vital. Meanwhile, news reports point out that even if all the new initiatives had been implemented, they might not have prevented some recent mass shootings.
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On the Democratic side, front-runner Hillary Clinton has unveiled her own proposals for gun-control executive actions and enthusiastically endorsed Obama’s measures even before the president’s official announcement.
Ayotte said Obama should have worked with Congress to achieve legislation. “We maybe can’t save everybody, but we could save some”.
The White House and others can’t say how many transactions the step will block or how much bloodshed it may prevent. Mark Barden, whose son was shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School, introduced the president with a declaration that “we are better than this”.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said Obama is “making an end-run around the Constitution, trying to go directly to executive order and restrict one of the basic, fundamental principles of our country”.
In a powerful address in the White House, surrounded by family members of people killed in shootings, Obama’s voice rose to a yell as he said the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms needed to be balanced by the right to worship, gather peacefully and live their lives. The Republican field formed a chorus of voices vowing to annul the whole package, with Marco Rubio claiming Obama was “Obama is obsessed with undermining the Second Amendment”. Congress should move to immediately fund the president’s request for an additional 200 ATF agents and investigators and ensure that all law enforcement programs are fully funded in the fiscal year 2017 budget. One likely option for opponents is to challenge Obama’s authority to define what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns, since that definition isn’t laid out in the law.
Republicans, who generally oppose gun control measures, reacted angrily to the president’s proposals. “We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to become scapegoats for President Obama’s failed policies”, Cox said.
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia appeared to be in a minority in his party in voicing opposition to Obama’s actions.
Fellow Utahn Cresta Beck doesn’t think private transactions should be subject to background checks.
The Social Security Administration has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to be able to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons, and the Department of Health and Human Services is finalizing a rule to remove legal barriers that prevent states from reporting some information about prohibited people, according to the White House. “This approach is similar to existing firearm regulations in Pennsylvania and is a common sense way to protect public safety”. It’s that congressional Republicans, pressured by conservative opinion-leaders and interest groups, have refused to do anything at all.
Ryan added Congress would do its part to challenge the orders. “His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty”.
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But the president has been periodically forced into a corner, first when Congress rejected a bill containing provisions similar to those in his executive order after the Newtown massacre, then with each failure to act after the more than 1,000 mass shootings since.
