Obama unveils measures to curb gun violence

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Obama unveils measures to curb gun violence
A tough subject: President Obama became emotional when remembering the shooting deaths of first graders in 2012. Image: WhiteHouse.gov.
President Barack Obama today announced executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence in a room packed with gunshot victims, parents of victims, children of victims and a former congresswoman who was shot, point-blank, in the head.

    Obama outlined executive actions to close loopholes on gun sales, get help for the mentally ill and improve the background-check process. For example:
  • Anyone in the business of selling firearms -- including sales on the Internet or at gun shows -- must get a license and conduct background checks or be subject to criminal prosecutions.
  • The government will hire more people to process background checks faster.
  • A redoubled effort will be made to enforce safety regulations already on the books and to boost gun safety technology. “If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin, we should make sure they can’t pull a trigger on a gun,” Obama said.
  • A proposal to invest $500 million to increase access to mental health care.
    Obama has championed and encouraged gun control legislation in the past -- to no avail. Notably, in 2013, the Senate defeated a bill focused on gun buyer background checks.
    “The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they do not have to hold America hostage,” Obama said while announcing the executive action. “We do not have to accept this carnage as a price of freedom.”
    The National Rifle Association said the executive actions are “ripe for abuse by the Obama Administration, which has made no secret of its contempt for the Second Amendment. The NRA will continue to fight to protect the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under our Constitution.”
    But Obama noted that he taught constitutional law and said he respects the Second Amendment. 
    “Second Amendment rights are important,” he said. “But there are other rights that we care about as well, and we have to be able to balance them.”
    The right to worship freely was denied to members of religious groups -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh -- targeted by gunmen, he began. 
    “Our right to peaceful assembly, that right was robbed from moviegoers in Aurora [Colorado] and Lafayette [Louisiana]. Our unalienable right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg [Virginia] and Santa Barbara [California], and from high schoolers at Columbine [Colorado], and from first graders in Newtown [Connecticut].” He paused and then added, “first graders.”
    At times, Obama became emotional. He recalled going to the bedside of Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman, who was shot in the head during a political rally Jan. 8, 2011. He noted that Giffords, who was present and seated in the front row, was initially not expected to survive.
    The president also spoke of the heroism of a 15-year-old high school student shot to death after throwing himself in the line of fire in order to save others during a drive-by shooting in December. But when Obama spoke of the 20 first graders and six educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, he paused and wiped away a tear.
    “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” he said, adding, “And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”

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     Sandy Hook case: History of a war weapon

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