It’s been four months since a controversial gun control measure was shot down in the Senate, but today, President Obama is announcing new steps towards curbing gun violence.
According to the Associated Press:
Striving to take action where Congress would not, the Obama administration announced new steps Thursday on gun control, curbing the import of military surplus weapons and proposing to close a little-known loophole that lets felons and others circumvent background checks by registering guns to corporations.
President Barack Obama added two more executive actions to a list of 23 steps the White House determined Obama could take on his own to reduce gun violence. With the political world focused on Mideast tensions and looming fiscal battles, the move signaled Obama’s intent to show he hasn’t lost sight of the cause he took up after 20 first graders and six adults were gunned down last year in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
Vice President Joe Biden unveiled the actions on Thursday at the White House.
“It’s simple, it’s straightforward, it’s common sense,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room.
One policy introduced will end a government practice that allows military weapons to be reimported into the U.S. by private entities. These weapons usually end up on the streets.
The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.
Another proposal is a federal rule to stop those who would be ineligible to pass a background check from skirting the law by registering certain guns (like machine guns and short-barreled shotguns) to a corporation.
The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks as individuals if they want to register those types of guns.
“It’s a very artful dodge to get around people who are not capable, constitutionally or legally, of owning a weapon,” Biden said.
And of course, the National Rifle Association (NRA) voiced their dissent, claiming that the new measures are ridiculous and won’t help curb gun violence at all.
“The Obama administration has once again completely missed the mark when it comes to stopping violent crime,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. “This administration should get serious about prosecuting violent criminals who misuse guns and stop focusing its efforts on law-abiding gun owners.”
Looks like the NRA missed the mark, however. The new policies clearly don’t target law-abiding gun owners – all of which confirms that reading is fundamental, something we’re sure they didn’t do.
SOURCE: AP
