Gun sales: White House to seek expanded background checks

“The White House is, however, under growing pressure to do more, with President Barack Obama’s administration criticized by opponents for what they say is a lack of discernable progress in eliminating the extremists”.

On Thursday, the US Senate voted to approve a short-term spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution, to fund the operations of the US government until December 16 and prevent a government shutdown.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Obama had not yet signed off on the use of the helicopters, and that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi would first have to request such support.

“The fact that there aren’t, when you combine the numbers … there aren’t more than 150,000 troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think is an indication that our priorities are oriented in a direction that better reflects our national security interests”, said Earnest.

“These are essentially recommendations that the president has asked for from his staff based on their review of available executive authority”, Earnest said. “I’m just pointing out that there are already an astonishing number of guns on the streets of America and far too many innocent Americans who are being killed by them”. The American people understand that expanding background checks is not the same as taking away everyone’s guns.

The move comes in response to recent mass shootings which have rattled the country. That ready access to guns and that proliferation of violent weapons of war has not led to fewer gun deaths.

In his Oval Office address Sunday, Obama called again for more gun control measures, including denying people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns, a view even the Los Angeles Times editorial board finds untenable. “That’s tragic and ironic”.