President Obama Issues Executive Order to stem Gun Violence

President Barack Obama pauses during a meeting to observe a moment of silence in the Oval Office at 9:30 am on 21 December 2012, to remember the 20 children and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Photo: Pete Souza | The White House | Wikipedia.

On Tuesday, January 5^th, President Barack Obama announced plans to use his executive authority to address the issue of gun violence in the United States. In 2015 alone there were 325 mass shootings in this country, something the president described as a depressing new normal.

President Obama, and the American people, have asked Congress to do something, anything, about gun violence in this country over and over again, and every time, Congress ignores those requests. Or, more accurately, some in congress try to do something, but then the Republicans kowtow to their gun lobby employers and stop anything from happening.

Now, the president is using executive authority to expand the definition of a gun dealer. The goal isn’t to take guns away from anyone, although that is something that many Americans seem to support, but to make it harder for some people to get guns.

Background checks for gun purchases do exist, but only for federally licensed sellers. If a gun seller doesn’t apply for a license, they don’t have to deal with background checks, meaning that sales online, in flea markets, gun shows, or homes don’t need to bother. Considering you can’t even by Sudafed without a state issued ID any more, this is an absurd oversight.

So the new order will expand the definition of a gun seller, requiring more of them to require background checks, and therefore making them subject to penalty for selling guns without those checks. The FBI will be hiring 230 new examiners to process those background checks and make sure that people buying guns are people who should be allowed to own them.

This executive order will, hopefully, reduce the number of questionable gun sales in the country and give law enforcement more tools to prevent, and punish, gun crimes. It may also set a precedent for common sense gun law, something the nation has been clamoring to be done.