Following a series mass shootings last year, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed comprehensive gun policy reform that included a series of executive actions.
The set of proposals is based on a month-long review by a task force spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden. The proposals address giving addtional tools to law enforcement, school safety, mental health and the availability of dangerous firearms and ammunition.
Under the proposals the president is recommending:
- universal criminal background checks for private and retail gun sales;
- reinstating the ban on military assault weapons;
- a limit on ammunition magazines;
- more gun research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
- helping schools develop emergency plans;
- adding more resource officers to schools;
- adding more police officers on the street;
- new gun trafficking laws and more.
The package will cost about $500 million, reported the Huffington Post.
Obama said in a Wednesday press conference that most Americans agree with universal background checks. He also said that more than 40 percent of gun purchases are done without background checks.
Part of his plan also includes appointing Todd Jones as director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Jones has been the acting director since 2011. The ATF has gone six years without a permanent director, according to TMP Livewire.
Many of Obama’s recommendations require Congressional approval, which is why he signed 23 executive actions that don’t require approval and take effect immediately.
The executive actions call for federal agencies to be required to hand over relevant data for a background check system; provide law enforcement, first responders and school officials with better training for active shooting situations; gun violence and prevention research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that includes video game research; and more.
Biden’s task force is comprised of 31 elected officials who met with 229 organizations from gun advocacy groups, law enforcement, sporting groups, and many others.
Local gun control reactions
The Milwaukee area saw three high-profile shooting deaths since August, in Oak Creek, Brookfield and Wauwatosa. Adding the mass shootings in and Newtown, CT to the equation has heightened the national and local dialogue on gun ownership and control.
A December Patch poll — Have Recent Events Made it More Likely for You to Own a Gun? — had an almost 53-46 split among 112 votes and more than 500 comments from Patch users.
Here's what some people had to say about today's press conference on Facebook:
Rickety Jim Twenty-three executive orders were signed. Did anyone catch what they all were? Of course not.. he didn't mention the majority of their content.
Greg Huegerich I'd like to see more liability for purchasers of guns, whose guns are used in crimes. Want to avoid liability? Fund the background check for private sales. All part of a constitutional requirement for a *well regulated* militia.
Jeff Alan-Pokey I think it sucks!! How is a ban on high capacity mags or AR15 going to stop nut heads from doing what they want. Lets put armed guards in all the schools and stop wasting time making laws that will make no difference to a criminal. However I do like the idea of background checks at gun shows.
E Jason Godersky 100% of all street gangs and mobster style thugs will not run background checks.
Patch commentary
A number of Patch Local Voices bloggers have expressed their own thoughts on gun control. Below is a look into some of our more popular Local Voices posts:
- Lyle Ruble: America’s Gun Obsession
- Brian Dey: Gun Control: Why it Wouldn’t Have Prevented the Newtown Killings
- Jason Patzfahl: NRA — Not Responsible Americans
- Brian Dey: Anti Gun Nuts on False Witch Hunt
- Brian Carlson: Is Manhood Itself on the Line in the Gun-Regulation Debate?
In the mean time a so called hunter, Steve Ebbie, was schooled by this ►There is absolutely no difference between an AR-15 and any other .223 rifle. None. A pistol grip doesn't make the .223 any deadlier, nor does a retractable stock. None, zip, nada.◄
After Washington DC implemented their gun ban, gun murders INCREASED by more than 150%. Similar results when Chicago had their gun ban. Gun violence increased by 40% there after their ban went into effect. The facts speak for themselves.
End the NONSENSE! Guns are an inanimate object - a tool - they are only dangerous in the hands of a criminal. What tool isn't dangerous in the hands of a criminal? How about a FIST! One punch homicide - "One Punch Homicide is a documentary that will reduce violence, crime, and murders, possibly more than anything in our time. It's about people who killed and were killed with one punch, and only one punch, and their loved ones. It will reduce violence against everyone - the elderly, disabled, lgbt, children, women, and men. Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg of King County, which includes Seattle, Washington, says King County has four to six one punch homicides every year. If King County's one punch homicide rate is average for the nation, which is impossible to tell because no one in the U.S., including the FBI, keeps statistics on the subject, then the U.S. has between 500 and 1,000 one punch homicides every year. Although this isn't a huge number, it has other implications. Most single punches don't result in a death, but for every death by one punch, how many other people experience serious injuries, including brain damage, because of one punch - 10, 20, 50, 100, or more?" http://onepunchhomicide.com/
"December 14, 2012, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued the following statement in response to U.S. officials’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the targeted killing of three U.S. citizens, including a 16-year-old boy, in Yemen last year: The essence of the government’s argument is that it has the authority to kill Americans not only in secret, but also without ever having to justify its actions under the Constitution in any courtroom. To claim, as the administration has today, that the courts have no role at all to play in assessing whether the government's targeted killings of Americans are lawful—even after the fact—simply cannot be squared with the Due Process Clause. The president himself has acknowledged that the targeted killing program must be subject to more meaningful checks, but there is little evidence of that recognition in the brief filed by the government today. If the court accepts the government's position, it is not only the current president but every future president who will wield the power to kill any American he or she deems to present a threat to national security, without ever having to explain that action to a judge. The Constitution requires more.
PERIOD. A Fear of guns is irrational. Fear People - especially incendiary radicals like Lyle and Keith.
We are a country founded on religious freedom by Puritans, not convicted criminals like in Australia, yet we still feel the need to have 100 round assault rifles strapped to our groins to make us feel more like men in case Kate Middleton and the redcoats come trying to take back their colony. Stop being so paranoid and turn in your assault rifles. Carry a pistol and a cell phone if you have to, but for Christ's sake, turn in the guns that were designed only for military use.
If I am wrong then the gov't website that I cut and pasted the name from is wrong.
Interesting that you think that pistols are OK to have--they are easily concealed. An assault rifle is much more difficult to hide when one is looking to cause harm. If people see a guy carrying a rifle through a school parking lot, they'll tend to call the police. If a guy is carrying a pistol through a school parking lot, nobody will even notice...
I don't strapped to my groin (as you always need to stoop to insults) or because it makes me feel more manly than you,(insult incoming) I can do that wearing ballet slippers and a thong. I like them because they irritate lefties.
Picture it as brain dead liberals shambling towards you chanting "redistribute, entitlements, pay your fair share" and so on so forth. Not quite so funny now is it.
I had assumed that you were an adult who could openly discuss a topic with which we may have differeing opinions/solutioins. I think laws should be enforced. I believe in paying time for doing crime and would like criminals held longer if warrented. No clue about the ungarded criminal.
Marco Rubio
There are idiots in any crowd...you're proof positive of this axiom.