Obama to push executive action on gun control

The president will meet Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to finalise a series of new gun control measures and will announce his package of proposals soon afterward, according to several individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not yet public.

Ted Alcorn, research director for gun control advocacy group Everytown, said Everytown officials met with Obama in December to make recommendations for executive action. The gun lobby is loud and well organised in its defence of effortlessly available guns for anyone.

“A few months ago, I directed my team at the White House to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence”, he said.

More details about what is being proposed are expected to be released after the President meets with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to legally clarify what he can and cannot do under an executive order.

The National Rifle Association opposes expanded background check systems.

As he approaches the final year of his presidency, President Barack Obama intends to try and fulfil one of his outstanding policy goals by restricting access to guns.

He has repeatedly urged Congress to tighten gun legal guidelines. Clarification might outline which sellers want to satisfy guidelines and do background checks.

“In California, President Obama had what he wanted-the strictest gun control in the country-and it did not prevent the San Bernardino attack”. The big difference between its report and the reports of others who have warned of executive gun control is that the BBC is very frank about Obama’s motives: he is going around the constitutional check that Congress put on gun control in April 2013.

“‘You have to handle your transfer through a Federal Firearms Licensee”, Wareham said, referencing Colorado’s law which requires background checks even on private sales.

Months after the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school massacre that claimed 26 victims, the then-Democratic majority Senate rejected a similar proposal.

President Obama admitted it will be hard to go forward alone, but he believes it will be worth it in the end.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Mr Obama was aware Congress was unlikely to act on gun reform. But it exempts anyone “who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms”.

Aside from the background check provision, people familiar with Obama’s plans say his new gun control announcement will include new funding for government agencies to better enforce existing gun laws.

“The United States has a culture of guns, of hunting, of violence and it’s kind of ingrained in the American psyche particularly in rural and southern states”.