It took him half a dozen years, but Obama is finally coming for our guns

Perhaps worrying that not enough self-described “patriots” were heading out to join the well-armed Christian militia members who are massing in that abandoned Oregon gift shop to fight federal “tyranny”, President Obama just announced that, starting tomorrow, he’d finally be coming for our guns… If that doesn’t light a fire under the asses, nothing will.

obamaguns

In actuality, the measures to be proposed by Obama, which will be formally announced tomorrow, seem relatively modest… The following comes from the Washington Post.

…The package, which Obama plans to announce Tuesday, includes 10 separate provisions, White House officials said. One key provision would require more gun sellers — especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows — to be licensed and would force them to conduct background checks on potential buyers. Obama would devote $500 million more in federal funds to treating mental illness — a move that could require congressional approval — and require that firearms lost in transit between a manufacturer and seller be reported to federal authorities.

At the president’s direction, the FBI will begin hiring more than 230 additional examiners and other personnel to help process new background checks 24 hours, seven days a week. Also, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has established a new investigation center to keep track of illegal gun trafficking online and will devote $4 million and additional personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network…

Given all of the recent mass shootings, and the fact that guns now kill as many people in the United States each year as cars, it’s amazing to me that modest reforms, like those suggested above, would be seen as anything but positive, but the cult of the gun is strong in this country, and you can bet that people will be up in arms over the suggestion that… god forbid… authorities be alerted when truckloads of assault rifles go missing.

For what it’s worth, Obama tried to go a little further in the past, but only succeeded in getting shut down by Congress. Here, with more on that, is a clip from the New York Times.

…Mr. Obama will stop short of the kind of large-scale changes that he unsuccessfully sought from Congress three years ago. That legislation would have closed loopholes that allowed millions of guns to be sold without background checks at gun shows or in online firearm exchanges.

Instead, Mr. Obama will merely clarify that existing laws require anyone making a living from selling guns to register as a licensed gun dealer and conduct background checks. White House officials said the president would note that criminal penalties already existed for violating those laws…

Here, in case you’re interested, is the NRA response. [For such well-armed people, they sure are scared.]

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16 Comments

  1. Posted January 4, 2016 at 9:10 pm | Permalink

    And one last thing… I like second term Obama. I wish he’d come out sooner.

  2. Elliott
    Posted January 4, 2016 at 9:48 pm | Permalink

    Fox News: “President Obama wants to disarm America”

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/01/04/president-obama-wants-to-disarm-america.html

    “The American people seem to understand what the president does not — guns keep our families safe.”

  3. Kim
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 9:05 am | Permalink

    Can someone explain this to me. From what I’ve read, it sounds like Obama tried to closed the loopholes that “allowed millions of guns to be sold without background checks at gun shows or in online firearm exchanges,” and failed, so now he’s attempting to go about it another way by forcing the people who sell through those channels to be licensed. Is that correct?

  4. Eel
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 9:06 am | Permalink

    The NRA is like something right out of an Orwell novel.

    “NRA: Freedom’s Safest Place”

  5. Dan Gillotte
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 9:11 am | Permalink

    #ThanksObama

  6. K2
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 10:01 am | Permalink

    What is Obama going to do with all of the guns that he collects?

  7. XXX
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 11:03 am | Permalink

    He will be melting them down and building white concentration camps with them.

  8. Brainless
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 11:40 am | Permalink

    > What is Obama going to do with all of the guns that he collects?

    > He will be melting them down…

    You can’t have death panels without metal panels now, can you? That’s right, death metal panels.

  9. Demetrius
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 7:26 pm | Permalink

    I’m not saying I disagree … but I suspect that, secretly, the NRA is positively giddy at the prospect of the dramatically increased gun sales this is bound to generate, and all the corresponding gun-manufacturer profits that will be flowing into their coffers, and into the campaigns of the various “patriots” who are running for the White House and Congress.

    Talk about a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation: Any time the President or Congress decides to take even a modest step toward sensible gun regulation … it unleashes a wave of anti-government hysteria and dramatically higher gun sales.

  10. EOS
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 8:19 pm | Permalink

    Obama is the best salesman a gun-manufacturer ever had. I wish I had bought stock 7 years ago.

  11. A.C.
    Posted January 5, 2016 at 8:39 pm | Permalink

    This is irony at its best. One of the biggest counters against new gun laws is that we just need to do a better job of enforcing our existing ones. Now Obama has taken steps to do exactly that and the NRA is pissed? What a bunch of crybabies. And that NRA video is the dumbest thing ever. I can’t even enumerate all of the logic holes in the concept that “disarming America” is putting us in danger from terrorists.

  12. Demetrius
    Posted January 6, 2016 at 7:54 am | Permalink

    One of the most overlooked aspects of President Obama’s speech is perhaps the most important:

    As things currently stand, one Constitutional right (the 2nd) is being promoted by a few … as more important than the rights of many others (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness).

    According to some people, the right of the majority to feel (and be) safe in their own neighborhoods and communities, or while going to school, or visiting a mall or movie theater, is less important than the rights of gun-humpers and their powerful lobby … not to mention the profits of Colt, Glock, Beretta, and Smith and Wesson.

  13. EOS
    Posted January 6, 2016 at 10:54 pm | Permalink

    That’s a false dichotomy Demetrius. An armed people are more able to protect their lives, liberties, and the pursuit of happiness from those who would attempt to use force or an executive order to deny them their inalienable rights.

  14. Peter Larson
    Posted January 7, 2016 at 2:10 am | Permalink

    Who cares? We will all die anyway.

  15. Peter Larson
    Posted January 7, 2016 at 4:18 am | Permalink

    As a means of suicide, guns are extremely easy to get and effective. Chemical options are unreliable, and the most reliable chemical methods are out of reach for the average American.

  16. Peter Larson
    Posted January 7, 2016 at 4:54 am | Permalink

    Here is a great breakdown of suicide methods. As you can see, guns offer an effective, quick and agony free death, when compared to other methods.

    http://lostallhope.com/suicide-methods/statistics-most-lethal-methods

    It could be argued that stringent gun control methods might increase human suffering for those who choose to end their lives.

2 Trackbacks

  1. […] suggesting that the answer was to put more guns in our schools. And I praised President Obama for his incremental moves to bring sanity back to the conversation by actually talking openly about the societal costs associated with gun violence and suggesting […]

  2. By If only there were more guns in Texas on November 5, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    […] It took him half a dozen years, but Obama is finally coming for our guns […]

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