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President Obama, in his first weekly address of 2016, came out with what is likely his last push for major legislation during his tenure in the White House.
Despite a flare-up in gun violence in recent years, the president said, the gun lobby keeps blocking even small and common sense regulations on fire arm ownership. This is why he is hoping for popular support in his drive to limit gun ownership to responsible individuals, and to bring some transparency to the market.
This is an issue, that Obama perceives as unfinished business of sorts and which will likely take up a lot of his energy during his last months in office.
Here is what we know so-far about the president’s plans:
– Obama believes in the 2nd amendment right of every American to own a gun. He will not try to restrict gun ownership without sound reasons.
– 90 percent of Americans support background checks for persons buying firearms. It is only because of the influence of the gun lobby that Congress has not passed even relatively weak measures to reign in gun ownership of potentially dangerous individuals.
– Regarding the chance of relatively narrow reforms achieving meaningful change in the number of people killed by firearms, he said: “We know we can’t stop every act of violence, but what if we tried to stop even one?”
– The president is not confident about the Republican House passing any meaningful measures. He is therefore looking into ways the White House can act unilaterally.
– On Monday the president will meet with the attorney general to discuss specific options
– The president called on those who believe that is possible to protect the 2nd amendment while at the same time keeping guns out of the hands of an “irresponsible, dangerous few“, to help him in his campaign.
