By Taylor Boggs, ’16 Perspectives Section Editor
“We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.” – President Barack Obama
In January, President Obama set in motion a series of executive actions in an attempt to reduce gun violence and fix gaps present in United States’ gun laws. Over the last decade, more than 4 million individuals have been targets of assault, robberies, and other gun-related crimes; more than 20,000 children under 18 have been killed due to gunshot; there have been more than 20,000 suicides by gun; 466 law enforcement officers have been shot and killed by felons. Each year, there are more than 30,000 gun-related deaths in America—and many of these fatalities were caused by people who never should have been sold a firearm in the first place. At the same rate, it is important to note that it is not in fact guns that are killing people—people are killing people.
President Obama’s executive actions were designed to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands through extensive background checks, make communities safer, report and treat mental health, and to shape forthcoming gun safety technology. However, critics argue that Obama’s gun control plan is not only underdeveloped and does not explain how these restrictions would significantly impact public safety, but it also diminishes the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Likewise, while Obama continues to argue that his system will both make the public safer and be consistent with the Second Amendment, many believe that these actions are merely oppressing the rights of law-abiding citizens in an unrealistic attempt to improve the behavior and actions of criminals.
Keeping guns out of the wrong hands requires major background checks and awareness of criminal history. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was created to prevent guns from being sold to criminals, but it needs to be more efficient to ensure appropriate records to improve public safety. Under the President’s executive actions, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has made it clear that anyone selling firearms must have a license and conduct background checks and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is developing their background check system to be more operative and effectual. These background checks rely on receiving complete criminal histories of firearm owners and vendors as well as processing background checks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Another important aspect to the President’s executive actions is mental health treatment. The Administration wants $500 million to invest in increased access to mental health care. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services is making it possible to include personal information in background checks, such as mental health problems, to track individuals prohibited from owning firearms. According to the President, the Social Security Administration is also supporting these checks (despite the fact that the acting Secretary of SSA confirmed with Congress that the agency did not intend to report every beneficiary).
The future of gun safety technology is being driven by the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security which are conducting research into gun safety technology. The President directed the departments to review “smart gun” technology and to explore potential ways to improve gun safety. For example, he wants to use the U.S. government as the leading gun producer to improve features, such as those on your iPhone and iPad, to be used in firearms.
The overarching goal of Obama’s gun control measures is to make communities safer. Attorney General Loretta Lynch alongside President Obama has urged federal prosecutors to focus on enforcement of gun laws. The President’s FY2017 budget will include funding for new ATF agents and other officers to enforce gun laws as well. The ATF itself has also established investigation centers to track illegal online firearms trafficking.
President Obama aims to narrow the “gun show loophole” in which small sellers do not keep formal gun sales records. In his address, Obama criticized Republicans for opposing background checks and blasted the gun lobby, continually insisting that his actions are “not a plot to take away everybody’s guns.” On the contrary, the President says that “no matter how many times people try to twist [his] words around… [he] believes in the Second Amendment…but [he] also believe[s] that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment.” Let us be clear on President Obama’s executive actions: these are not consistent with Congress, they are actions within his legal authority that he can take in the hopes of reducing gun violence. It is going to take some time before Congress is in line with “the majority of Americans.”
Many individuals, gun-owners and non-owners, Republicans and Democrats, would disagree with Obama’s argument that law-abiding citizens are being protected. The opponents do agree however that trusting this plan is a leap of faith –they are being implemented in the hope that creating stricter gun laws and increasing background checks will somehow stop criminals from engaging in violent crimes.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, an opponent of executive action, stated that “the President has never respected the right to safe and legal gun ownership that our nations has valued since its founding.” Ryan argued that the President knows that the law already requires firearm vendors to be licensed regardless of venue. Thus, making this an issue is merely an attack on those citizens who legally own and sell guns and arguing that somehow these legal interactions are not, in fact, legal. Overall, he believes that the President is too busy focusing on the law-abiding citizens when he should be focusing on criminals and terrorists: “his words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty.” Meanwhile, presidential democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has said that if she becomes president, she will continue Obama’s gun control plan if she is elected.
It is important to differentiate that stricter laws and support for increased background checks are two different clauses of the President’s executive actions. While many support the increased profile checks, the issue of stricter laws is more divided. Under the statue enacted in 1986, the President cannot unilaterally expand the law, but he can instill fear in gun owners and intimidate them—and this is where many people feel that the President is attacking the Second Amendment right to own firearms. Despite the fact that the President claims that his intention is not to take away firearms, his continual argument that guns, not terrorists and criminals, are what cause violent crimes and the declaration that the way to fix these crimes is to further restrict Americans’ ability to own guns proves that he is in fact not on board with the right to bear arms.
Thus many believe that the actions are strikingly unconstitutional: they clearly inhibit Americans’ right to self-protection. That being said, there still is a need for increased background checks in order to prohibit those who have criminal records or suffer from mental sickness from obtaining guns. Guns do not kill people. People kill people. The problem with gun violence is not that too many people own guns, it is that too many people that should not own guns do. The problem with executive action is that the President is precluding that every gun-owner is somehow contributing to gun safety problems when in fact the majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens who solely desire a form of protection. Gun related crimes are not going to decrease simply because the President says that decreasing gun sales is going to increase public safety. Gun related crimes are going to decrease after those who should never have obtained them stop getting them, and people realize that firearms are not the problem, nor the people with the firearms, but the terrorists and criminals who blithely ignore the law and are not focused on by the government. Because it is sad but true that those who desire to inflict harm are not going to be fazed by gun controllers.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/05/politics/obama-executive-action-gun-control/
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20160108/obama-issues-executive-actions-on-guns
Image Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/16/obama-biden-gun-control-announcement-live
