Obama makes the case for tighter gun rules

Taya Kyle, wife of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle, asks President Obama why he doesn’t focus on declining murder rates, during a town hall meeting on gun control on January 7. “If you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top, and so overheated”. Last year, following a series of mass shootings, Obama pledged to “politicize” the issue in an attempt to level the playing field for gun control supporters. “Every time there’s a mass shooting, gun sales spike”.

“Now people are using cut-out trusts and shell corporations to purchase the most risky weapons: sawed off shot guns, automatic weapons, silencers – and don’t have to go through background checks at all”, he said.

The NRA declined to declined to participate in the event hosted by CNN at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, not far from the NRA’s headquarters.

And while the most surprising moment of the week came when the usually stoic President Obama shed a tear during an announcement on new executive action on gun control Tuesday, another moment from Thursday’s CNN presidential town hall in Fairfax, Va., will likely stick out in the minds of gun-rights proponents.

A CNN spokesperson said that it was the network, not the White House, that proposed the idea of a town hall on guns and noted that the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment, including NRA members, as well as groups that back gun regulation.

She said such a measure would not have stopped recent high-profile killings, noting “the people who are murdering are breaking the law”.

“I think that your message of hope is something I agree with”.

“Celebrate that we’re good people and 99.9% of us will never kill anyone”. From Obama’s response, it sounds like he knows stricter gun laws won’t be able to stop the criminals who are purchasing the most risky types of weapons. “There is away for us to set up a system where you, a responsible gun owner can have a firearm to protect yourself, but where it is much harder to fill up a vehicle with guns and sell them to 13-year-old kids on the streets”.