President Obama is strongly considering using his executive power to act where Congress won’t by expanding background checks through executive action.
In response to the latest mass shooting during his presidency, President Obama is seriously considering circumventing Congress with his executive authority and imposing new background-check requirements for buyers who purchase weapons from high-volume gun dealers.
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The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year. The current federal statute dictates that those who are “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms need to obtain a federal license — and, therefore, conduct background checks — but exempts anyone “who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”
What the President is considering is not gun control. There will be no control over the ability of law-abiding citizens to purchase guns. The President’s potential executive action would close a loophole in the system by hopefully weeding out people who should not have the ability to purchase a gun without a background check.
Roughly 90% of those polled support expanding background checks. Expanding background checks is popular with Republicans and Democrats. It is a common-sense step that would not stop anyone from purchasing a gun from a high volume gun deal, but criminals and the mentally ill.
The gun industry and their propaganda arm, the NRA, will respond with hysteria about how Obama is coming for your guns, but their claim is nothing more than a commercial to sell more guns.
President Obama is willing to act where Congress won’t, and if his executive action prevented one mass shooting, it would be well worth the political and legal fight.
The country can no longer sit back and watch innocent people die in mass shootings because the gun industry controls Congress.
The time to act is now.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
