Criticism of Obama’s use of executive actions has been a common theme during his presidency, with opponents claiming he relies on them heavily, while supporters say he’s used far fewer than his predecessors.
Advertisement
“We are trying to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them [and] we want to keep our communities safe”, she said.
Obama admitted the measures were “not going to solve every violent crime in this country”. “It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and the extraordinary loss that they’ve suffered as a outcome of a firearm being in the hands of wrong people”. Gun control advocates say that loophole is exploited to skirt the background check requirement. To that end, the government will consider other factors, including how many guns a person sells, how frequently, and whether those guns are sold for a profit.
The FBI is also working to modernize NICS, which dates to the 1990s, and to improve the response time for alerting local law enforcement authorities that someone who is disqualified from buying a gun attempted to do so.
Yet even the more modest steps rely on murky interpretations of existing law that could be easily reversed.
“I feel confident in telling you now that what the President does announce will be the kinds of actions in which we have confidence that they are within the legal ability of the United States to carry out these actions”, Earnest said.
“I won’t wipe it away”, Clinton said. While Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on the issue, both parties see Obama’s actions as an opportunity to generate enthusiasm among primary voters.
“I will work with my colleagues to respond appropriately to ensure the Constitution is respected”, said Sen Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Only federally licensed gun dealers must now conduct background checks on buyers.
An additional 230 Federal Bureau of Investigation staff members will be hired to process the background checks. Numerous roughly 63,000 background check requests each day are processed within seconds. Under current law, a gun sale can go forward if a background check is not completed within three days.
“(Obama’s executive actions are) another reason why it is critical for Americans to send a conservative back to the White House in November”, Bentley said.
President Barack Obama will introduce a raft of executive actions to try to reduce USA gun violence Tuesday, bypassing Congress and launching a bitter 2016 election year fight. He’ll continue his gun control push on Thursday when he participates in a live CNN town hall discussing the plans. The initiative also promised to be prominent in Obama’s final State of the Union address next week.
But Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, predicted a “dramatic impact” from the steps.
Advertisement
“We have tens of thousands of people every single year who are killed by guns”, he said. The gun-control advocacy movement has gained wealthy backers, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but the National Rifle Association remains one of the most dominant forces in American politics.
