Obama: Gun actions consistent with 2nd Amendment

Sources said the President is expected to take executive action without congressional approval, expanding background checks, a move which has widespread public support.

Napolitano said that one thing the president wants to do is regulate the sale of firearms by “occasional sellers” to require background checks in those instances.

“The guidance could be used as evidence that prosecutors made a reasonable interpretation that a dealer needed a license, but it’s not binding”, said James Jacobs, law professor at New York University and author of the 2004 book “Can Gun Control Work?” “It’s not going to prevent every mass shooting; it’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal”.

The FBI is now working to hire 230 more examiners who work to conduct the federal background checks on gun buyers. Even still, the more modest measures were sure to spark legal challenges from those who oppose any new impediments to buying guns.

At a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Obama is expected to sign off on a package of proposals aimed at curbing gun violence and cracking down on unregulated gun sales.

A spokeswoman for Ted Cruz this weekend called Obama’s plans “complete lunacy” and promised, “If Ted Cruz is elected president, the lawlessness will end on Day One, and Americans’ personal liberties will be restored and protected”.

Republican lawmakers Yellowhammer spoke with Monday morning said they are anxious to see what the President does, and acknowledged the ensuing fight will likely play out in the courts, but added they would like to see Alabama continue to increase its protections for gun owners and sellers.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also on Fox, said Obama’s “first impulse is always to take rights away from law-abiding citizens, and it’s wrong”.

Despite his deep differences with Republicans, Obama has cited two agenda items for 2016 that have bipartisan support: a free trade agreement with 11 other nations called the Trans-Pacific Partnership and changes in the criminal justice system that would reduce incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders. Sen Bob Corker, R-Tenn., denounced Obama’s steps as “divisive and detrimental to real solutions”. But she said hobbyists and collectors would still be exempt from registration requirements. Administration lawyers have spent months reviewing various proposals to ensure redefining what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms can withstand legal challenges.

And the background check provision rests in the murky realm of agency guidelines, which have less force than full-fledged federal regulations and can easily be rescinded.

Obama’s plans already have resonated on the presidential campaign, where Republicans and Democrats have staked out very different positions on the question of how to address gun violence. But in instances where the Federal Bureau of Investigation needs more time, the government only has three days before prospective buyers can return and buy the gun without being cleared. This wouldn’t close the so-called gun show loophole, though it has the potential to narrow it. “We have a frequency of mass shootings that far exceed other countries in frequency”, Obama said during a news conference at the White House Monday.

In a week, the president will deliver his final State of the Union address, in which he’ll lay out his agenda for his final year in office.

Deaths from gun violence, many of them suicides, average 30,000 per year in America.

Meanwhile, a steady number of hide carry permits are being granted locally, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.