19 Ways Obama Wants to Get Your Guns – More Details Coming Wednesday
There are at least 19 different executive orders Obama is considering in dealing with gun control. That's 19 ways for him to bypass Congress.
Wednesday, shortly before noon, Obama plans to unveil his ideas on the issue. He won't be missing an opportunity to use children for his agenda, as he will be joined at the White House by kids who reportedly wrote him letters on the issue. That part is interesting because it hasn't been THAT long since the Gun Task Force convened, and it's been less than a month since the Newtown, Connecticut shooting.
The Obama administration had to have received these letters, reached out to the families, arranged for the child to be brought to the White House, etc. in a short period of time. But when it comes to using crisis for political gain, Obama has never missed a beat. As his former chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel said, "A crisis is too good to waste."
We bring this up because numerous times on the 2012 campaign trail, including a stop in a Portland, Oregon diner, the Obama team was busted for staging confrontations with people he'd supposedly never met.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to elaborate on which of the so-called 19 orders Obama is tossing around, but reportedly they could include:
- more aggressively enforcing gun laws (whatever that means!)
- beefing up national research on guns (what kind of research?)
- ordering stricter action for people who lie on gun backround check applications
- stricter penalties for gun-trafficking offenses
- ordering federal agencies to make data on gun crimes more readily available.
Obama already favors a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, but that is likely to face a firestorm of opposition in Congress. Texas Congressman Steve Stockman is vowing to do everything in his power to impeach Obama if he tries to implement gun control by executive order.
Stockman, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, says such actions would be a direct attack on the constitution:
"an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic."
Obama has accused his critics of "ginning up" fear on the part of gun owners. To which NRA Spokesman Andrew Arulanandam replied with this zinger of a quote:
"The president should go talk to the people buying firearms and ask them WHY they're buying firearms."