Alongside Vice President Joe Biden and a group of children who had written in support, President Barack Obama signed a proposal to Congress on Wednesday to strengthen United States gun laws. These included universal background checks, limiting the number of bullets in a clip and renewing a ban on military-grade assault rifles.
"If America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown," Obama said.
He listed some specific measures, including a 10-round limit on magazines for firearms, and asked Congress to confirm Todd Jones to fill the long-dormant role of chief for the Bureau of Alchol, Tobacco and Firearms — and briefly mentioned other measures, including helping schools hire more resource officers and making sure mental health professionals have the tools they need. He suggested Congress should fund research into the link between gun violence and violent video games.
Assault rifle bans and universal background checks made up the core of his proposal. A full list of the proposals was published by CNN and can be viewed here.
The advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise issued a statement applauding the president's approach. As it has said before, though, including at its press conference Monday, change can't stop at new legislation. The statement came from one of the group's co-founder, Tim Makris, a Sandy Hook Elementary School parent.
However, not everybody was supportive of the measures, with the conservative group FreedomWatch announcing it is suing the White House task force that led to the gun control proposals offered by the president. The suit alleges the White House group conducted illegal meetings with lobbyists without the required public notice. The suit was filed in Florida federal court seeking to eliminate the task force and prevent any of its proposals from becoming law, The Hill reports.
Others were critical of the president using children as "props," drawing comparisons to the children Hitler surrounded himself with when attempting to sway public opinion. Although the National Rifle Association released a controversial ad asking why the president's children should get armed security while others had to be schooled in "gun free" zones, the organization took a softer tone in a statement released following the president's press conference. The full statement by the NRA released Wednesday reads:
Throughout its history, the National Rifle Association has led efforts to promote safety and responsible gun ownership. Keeping our children and society safe remains our top priority.
The NRA will continue to focus on keeping our children safe and securing our schools, fixing our broken mental health system, and prosecuting violent criminals to the fullest extent of the law. We look forward to working with Congress on a bi-partisan basis to find real solutions to protecting America’s most valuable asset – our children.
Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation. Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy.
What is your opinion of the president's proposals? A step in the right direction to fix the problems of gun violence in our country? Or way too far — an overstep of his authority?
I also have a few things to say about some foolish Republicans that are getting snookered by the NAACP to put before the Ga. legislature a bill to have Georgia apologize for slavery. I wrote to the Chairperson of that organization to let her know that any such apology is done without me, neither I nor any member of my family have ever owned slaves and we have no apology to make to anyone.
Army: 14 June 1775 Navy: 13 Oct 1775 Marine Corpse: 10 Nov 1787 Bill of Rights: 15 Dec 1791 (With Virginia's ratification) I believe we had a free standing Army, Navy AND Marine Corpse at the time.
As far as President Obama I do not think he is doing a good job. However He was elected president by a majority of voters and we conservative voters just have to live with it. I would not want anything to happen to the president as that would be bad for the country and his family I respect the office as I always have. As I said earlier it is a slippery slope letting any president of the federal government start to "define" one of our rights. as that definition can change in an instant or down the road. the line does not stop for very long. it is not necessarily Obama I’m worried about but the next 4 or 5 presidents that each move the line a little further towards full taking of the guns. That is what I’m concerned about.
Second Universal background checks as explained by the President would not have stopped Adam They are only pushing to close the loophole on private sales and gun shows where back round checks are not done. Nobody is proposing the kind of background check you are proposing due to the fact it is totally unconstitutional! people in this country have rights and I’m not submitting to a back round check just because some one I live with wants a gun that I wont touch anyway, it is a illegal search and that stuff belongs in communist country's and dictatorships. did you volunteer to get everyone in your household checked when you brought those guns home??? I bet not.
There is a line. You cannot have ANY weapon you want. You can't have an RPG, land mines, or a nuke (sorry, you can't). I don't hear many people complaining about THAT being an infringement of their rights (though the way I hear many people interpret the 2nd amendment, it certainly is an infringement). I can see why people think this marginal restriction is headed towards an all out ban - that's fair. But it is also foolish to think that there should be NO restrictions on any type of weapon ownership.
In Mr. Obama we have a hack political organizer from the Chicago Daley machine. He is totally unqualified to be President and he is leading the Country down the wrong path and he needs to be impeached and removed from office. See: http://impeachobama2013.blogspot.com/ http://impeachobama2012.blogspot.com/
I'm with you. He is more dangerous than any gun in this country. He is a dictator, socialist and will not quit until He runs us in the ground. Biden is crazy too, so that is scary as well. I believe He has dementia, cause He always has that far away look with a weird grin/and always laughing at nothing. (as He did at debates, He would start laughing before anything was said from opponent-sad, but He has characteristic's of dementia)