Obama to make case for contentious gun control measures
AFP
January 6, 2016, 2:28 am
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama will take his case for tougher gun control to Americans Tuesday, detailing executive actions that will bypass Congress and have rallied fierce Republican opposition.
Obama will outline unilateral steps to regulate gun sales and curb illicit purchases, during an address in the East Room of the White House.
His administration has already dripped out most details of the modest yet controversial plan, leaving Obama with the task of selling it to a deeply divided American public.
Polls have shown most Americans back tougher gun laws.
But that support has ebbed recently amid concerns about the Islamic State group and the wider threat from terrorism.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday said the measures would tighten rules on who must register as a gun dealer, narrow a "gun show" loophole that allows buyers to dodge background checks, and crack down on "straw purchases" of weapons through intermediaries.
It would also encourage the Pentagon, with its vast buying power, to procure weapons from manufacturers who invest in "gun safety technology," such as fingerprint scanners that could be applied to commercial weapons.
Obama's package of measures comes at the start of his last year in the White House and in the midst of the 2016 election campaign to replace him.
Republicans have castigated the White House for trampling on the constitutional right to bear arms, but they are equally angered by Obama's defiant use of executive power to circumvent congressional opposition.
The Republican-controlled Congress has repeatedly rejected proposals designed to cut the estimated 30,000 gun deaths that occur in the United States each year.
"Pretty soon, you won't be able to get guns," said Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, vowing to tear up the measures if elected.
Republicans have long positioned themselves as the champion of gun owners, who make up a sizeable voting bloc in areas that could decide 2016 election races.
On Thursday, Obama will try to garner further support for his policies in a primetime town hall-style debate on gun control.
- Executive frustration -
During Obama's seven years as president, he has shown frequent flashes of anger and frustration at Congress's refusal to tighten controls on gun sales, most notably after the mass killings of Connecticut schoolchildren, South Carolina churchgoers and Colorado movie watchers.
But the executive measures will stop well short of introducing universal background checks or registering or collecting some of the more than 300 million guns already thought to be in circulation in the United States, actions that would likely require congressional approval.
On Monday, Obama admitted the measures he is taking are "not going to solve every violent crime in this country. It's not going to prevent every mass shooting. It's not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal."
"It will," he said, "potentially, save lives in this country" and spare families heartache.
Republicans may try to block funding for parts of the package designed to more aggressively enforce existing laws, including the hiring of 200 additional federal agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A more serious challenge to the new rules may come through the courts.
Obama's lawyers have spent months "scrubbing" existing laws to see where rules could be tightened, while surviving inevitable court challenges.
Obama insisted the measures would fall "well within my legal authority."
But similar executive efforts to bring millions of illegal immigrants out of the shadows by shielding them from deportation have prompted a slew of lawsuits and left a key Obama policy goal in the hands of the Supreme Court.
