On January 5, in a ceremony at the White House, President Obama announced a series of proposals to tighten Federal gun laws, calling them “common-sense steps to save lies and protect more of our children.” The initiative includes both legislative proposals that Congress would have to act on and executive actions that the President can take on his own. Major provisions include:
- Requiring more gun sellers — especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows — to be licensed and to conduct background checks on potential buyers.
- Hiring more than 230 additional FBI personnel to help process new background checks, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Adding 200 new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agents and investigators to bolster enforcement.
- Providing $500 million more in Federal funds to treat mental illness.
- Requiring federally licensed gun dealers to report any lost and stolen guns to the National Crime Information Center.
- Directing the Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security departments to conduct or sponsor gun violence research, including new gun safety technology.
Democrats in Congress lined up behind the President’s proposals. “The law has long been fuzzy,” said Senator Chris Murphy (CT-D). “By forcing more dealers at gun shows to run background checks, there will be less criminals that buy guns and less illegal guns sold on the streets of America.” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (MD-D) praised the President’s actions, but added, “The fact remains that it is up to Congress, through legislation, to make the full set of reforms our Nation needs to protect innocent Americans from the scourge of gun violence. Executive orders can only do so much.”
High-ranking congressional Republicans pushed back, however, threatening to use their power to block the President’s efforts. Representative John Culbertson (TX-R), Chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Jus tice Department, wrote a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch warning that his committee would not provide funds to implement the proposals.
“I notified the Attorney General that if the Department of Justice attempted to create new restrictions on our constitutional rights that I would use every tool at my disposal to immediately restrict their access to Federal funding,” the letter stated.
Senator Richard Shelby (AL-R), Culbertson’s Senate counterpart, vowed to “work tirelessly” to “reverse any proposals by this President to restrict the constitutional rights of the American people.”
After the shooting of 20 school children at a Connecticut elementary school in 2012, the Obama Administration issued a series of executive orders to increase gun safety. Legislation to expand gun sale background checks failed to pass the Congress, however.
For more background on gun control, see the March 2013 issue of Congressional Digest on “Gun Violence Prevention,” the November 1999 issue of Congressional Digest on “Firearms in America,” the April 2010 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Gun Control in the States,” and the May 2008 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “The Second Amendment.”
