OBAMA PROMISES TO TAKE EXECUTIVE ACTION ON MORE GUN CONTROLS

The President said he would meet with the Attorney General to see how he could bypass Congress

President Obama has promised that in the remaining year of his presidency he will bypass Congress to enact more gun controls by means of executive action.

Here are Obama’s remarks on Friday about gun violence from his weekly radio address:

Last month, we remembered the third anniversary of Newtown. This Friday, I’ll be thinking about my friend Gabby Giffords, five years into her recovery from the shooting in Tucson. And all across America, survivors of gun violence and those who lost a child, a parent, a spouse to gun violence are forced to mark such awful anniversaries every single day.

And yet Congress still hasn’t done anything to prevent what happened to them from happening to other families. Three years ago, a bipartisan, commonsense bill would have required background checks for virtually everyone who buys a gun. Keep in mind, this policy was supported by some 90% of the American people. It was supported by a majority of NRA households. But the gun lobby mobilized against it. And the Senate blocked it.

Since then, tens of thousands of our fellow Americans have been mowed down by gun violence. Tens of thousands. Each time, we’re told that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, so we shouldn’t do anything.

We know that we can’t stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something – anything – to protect our kids from gun violence?

A few months ago, I directed my team at the White House to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence. And on Monday, I’ll meet with our Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, to discuss our options. Because I get too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids, to sit around and do nothing. I get letters from responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time these tragedies happen; who share my belief that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms; and who share my belief we can protect that right while keeping an irresponsible, dangerous few from inflicting harm on a massive scale.

Nifty words. But what Obama is doing is politicizing the deaths of the Sandy Hook children and the lives of others taken in mass shootings. When Obama meets with and hugs the families of shooting victims, it’s a great photo-op for him.

One of Obama’s main goals is to close the loophole that allows private gun owners to set up tables at gun shows and sell guns without running the background checks required of licensed gun dealers. And he wants to prevent persons on the ‘no fly list’ from acquiring guns.

I see a big problem with turning to the ‘no fly list’ because there are way too many people on that list who do not belong there. They are on that list only because they have names like or similar to persons suspected of holding beliefs attributed to terrorist groups.

Look for whatever executive orders Obama issues on gun control to be challenged in the courts. If he prevails, what’s next? Perhaps background checks required for private sales where a person wants to buy a gun owner’s gun.