Gun Control on the way

[livetoshoot]

The Obama administration has been working behind the scenes on new gun control measures. It is believed he will use executive orders so he can avoid congress and put it into affect immediately.

Here are some articles on it.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6982

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/obama-unveil-gun-control-reforms_n_892633.html

[KBScobravert]

Can you cut and paste any of the huffington post article? My liberal employer blocks it. I am shocked I can still access the NRA sites.

[YALE]

For those that are blocked:

Friday, July 08, 2011


As we pass the six-month anniversary of the tragic Tucson shooting, multiple press reports indicate the Obama administration is planning to unveil new, but unspecified, gun control initiatives.

At a Thursday briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "As you know, the President directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common-sense measures that would improve Americans' safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights. That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues. And we expect to have some more specific announcements in the near future."

Carney provided no further details on the initiatives, but he isn't the only one saying something is in the works. According to a related article on NPR.org, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) said, “I have spoken to the president. He is with me on [gun control], and it's just going to be when that opportunity comes forward that we're going to be able to go forward.” And longtime anti-gun activist Sarah Brady has said that in March, the president told her “I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control] ... We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Rest assured we'll report any significant developments in the weeks ahead

Six months after Jared Loughner fired a fusillade of shots into a crowd of people in Tucson, Ariz., gun control advocates are asking why there has been no change to the policies that let him buy and carry a semi-automatic weapon without a permit.

Even the staunchest gun control activists suppressed their disappointment when President Obama skirted the issue during his speech in Tucson four days after the shooting, which left six people dead and more than a dozen wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

After all, it was a memorial service, not a political event. But the State of the Union address came a few weeks later, and Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was frustrated.

"The president mentioned [Gifford's] empty chair, mentioned the families, mentioned the dreams of the little girl that wouldn't come to fruition, and then five paragraphs later he's talking about the stock market," Helmke said. "And if someone had been on a desert island they would've thought, 'Gee, did space aliens take the congresswoman away? Was there some weird disease that swept through Arizona?' It was an opportunity that was missed."

Immediate Steps

Pressure built on the White House to say something about guns.

In March, the president wrote an op-ed column in the Arizona Daily Star newspaper.

In a classic Obama turn-of-phrase, he called on Americans to "get beyond wedge issues and stale political debates to find a sensible, intelligent way to make the United States of America a safer, stronger place."

Since then, there has been near silence from the White House on the issue.

A group of city mayors called Mayors Against Illegal Guns is sending a critical letter to the president Friday.

"We know that the White House is doing a serious policy review being conducted by serious people, and we have no reason not to take them at their word that they want to get to the right solution and make a difference," Mark Glaze, the group's director, said. "But the fact that we're now six months out, there's not been a single step from the White House, there's not been a single congressional hearing on Tucson or the policy problems that made it possible, is not encouraging."

Glaze says there are steps the president could take that would make a difference now, without waiting for Congress to act.

For example, military and federal agencies are required to report people with mental health and drug problems to the criminal background check system, but they often don't. That's something gun control advocates say the president could fix.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the administration has a working group looking at these issues.

"That process is well under way at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues, and we expect to have some more specific announcements in the near future," he said.

Appeasing Voters

There could be another reason for the White House's inaction: In this political season, President Obama needs every swing state voter he can get, including gun owners.
Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York attends a news conference on gun control, in Washington on Jan. 18.
Enlarge Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York attends a news conference on gun control, in Washington on Jan. 18.

"Bill Clinton himself said that the issue cost Democrats the House of Representatives in 1994 and cost them the presidency in 2000," said Dave Kopel, research director at the libertarian think tank the Independence Institute.

"The appropriate lesson drawn by Democratic political strategists would be twice burned thrice careful," he said.

The National Rifle Association echoes that warning.

Public Affairs Director Andrew Arulanandam says existing gun laws are sufficient, and his group is ready for a hard-fought campaign against those who feel otherwise.

"We will make sure that every voter, every gun owner, every hunter knows exactly where the president stands on guns and whoever the candidate is on the Republican side, too," he said.

One of the staunchest gun control advocates in Congress is New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York. A gunman killed her husband and wounded her son on the Long Island Railroad almost 20 years ago.

"I have spoken to the president. He is with me on it, and it's just going to be when that opportunity comes forward that we're going to be able to go forward," she said.

Since the Giffords shooting, McCarthy has introduced two major gun control bills that have gone nowhere, but she says she's patient.

It's not just guns, she says, an awful lot of things have not been getting done in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- Half a year after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the Obama administration is set to release a series of reforms to the current gun law, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday.

The reforms, which are being crafted by the Department of Justice, come after a series of meetings with relevant stakeholders in the Second Amendment debate. But in a nod to the difficulties of getting legislation through a Republican-run House of Representatives, only executive orders or administrative actions -- and not an actual bill -- are expected to be handed to Congress.

Administration officials were coy on the specifics, from the reforms the Department of Justice would recommend or when it would actually make those recommendations.

"The president directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common sense measures that would improve American safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights," Carney said at Thursday's briefing. "That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues and we expect to have more specific announcements in the near future."

Just how near? Carney would only say "not far in the future." Another administration official said weeks would be an appropriate measurement.

When the recommendations do come, it will represent the most comprehensive move on the gun control front from this administration to date. The president has largely punted on the issue since entering the White House, save issuing carefully worded reactions to Supreme Court rulings on local gun laws or bans.

The Giffords shooting had, seemingly, upped the pressure to implement reforms. Obama himself used the occasion to pen an op-ed for the Arizona Daily Star advocating for stronger state-to-state coordination with respect to gun data, expedited background checks and greater enforcement of the laws already on the books. The Department of Justice meetings commenced not too long later and have continued over the course of several months, according to an administration official. They are now finished.

The end result, one source close to the discussions said, was a package of reforms "not huge in scope." They are largely expected to mirror the topics covered in the president's op-ed. Gun control advocates have pushed for more, including legislation that would limit the size of magazines -- such as the 32-round clip that Giffords' shooter used -- or a bill that would force private sellers to conduct background checks at gun shows -- which was pushed in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting.

Still, executive actions offer something that legislation doesn't: guaranteed results. And as one gun control advocate told the Huffington Post, there are ways to "use these administrative changes to obtain similar results."

[Sean88gt]

Liberal common sense measures from Eric Holder will in no way protect American citizens and will only lead us further into enslavement.

[KBScobravert]

Liberal common sense measures from Eric Holder will in no way protect American citizens and will only lead us further into enslavement.

I would have worded that a little different. Holder, Napolitano and the current admin lack complete common sense and enslavement is their entire platform.

I refuse to "plow for those that don't". I will be dammed before I take a hammer to even my cheapest gun.

[GAP]

Good, guns are more responsibility than I (or anyone else) can handle anyways.

[Trip McNeely]

2012 cant come soon enough.

[CJ]

Something tells me this new BATFE scandal and recent resignation of the chief might put a political fuse on obama's gun control plans.

[bottlerocket]

time to stock up before prices skyrocket again?

[KBScobravert]

time to stock up before prices skyrocket again?

Time to sit on my 10 AR lowers. Or buy another 10.

[svauto-erotic855]

My fear in the Obama is going to issue a wave of executive orders banning all kinds of shit while going out the door. Bush Sr did the same thing and that is why you can't order a new G3 or Valmet from overseas.

[YALE]

Time to sit on my 10 AR lowers. Or buy another 10.

Dude, I've never been happier you sold me that AR10 lower.

[Mr_Fiux]

Cant executive orders be nulled by legislative and judicial powers? If he makes something law or bans something cant they just veto it?

[YALE]

Cant executive orders be nulled by legislative and judicial powers? If he makes something law or bans something cant they just veto it?

Congress would have to pass a law saying the alternative is the new rule, or it can be challenged by a suit against the government, with the intention of getting to the Supreme Court for clarification. Because of the structure of Executive powers, they are essentially pushed forward until another branch either enacts a law, or scraps the policy through the courts, respectively. Clear as mud?