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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Published Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 | 9:11 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 | 11:57 a.m.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced a promised gun control agenda Wednesday, pushing for dozens of changes and updates to current laws, including an expansion of background checks and a resuscitation of bans on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. “In the days ahead, I intend to use whatever weight this office holds to make them a reality,” Obama said of the recommendations. “No piece of legislation will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil. But if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there is even one life that can be ...
Have you read the 23 executive orders? Total fluff.
Obama showed the World how clueless he is about this issue today. He paraded those kids around like tokens. How sadly bizarre.
If this is the best the liberal agenda can conjure up then bring it on. Liberals hate truth and only want to swing the debate to emotions.
Today's carnival was, in essence, bringing a knife to a gun fight.
I just wish Obama stood up to the left wing radical economy and freedom destroyers the same way he thinks he stood against the rest of the country.
Yea,this will stop gun violence. Sandyhook wasn't caused by a crazy kook who was off his meds...
It's not the failed medical system Obama supports, that causes nut cases to go out and shoot up the schools and movie theaters. Its the gun laws!!
Yea, tougher gun laws... That will stop it. Look at Chicago and their tough gun laws. Look how safe it is there. The home to our beloved Messiah...
Surround yourself with duped children. Use them as pawns... Yea, thats the ticket!!
Looks like returning Veterans who seek counseling for PTSD or crime victims and first responder who seek similar treatment will have their names put in a database and have their guns seized. What about people with Down's Syndrome, are they going to be added to the "lists" of mentally "defective" people?
Where does the government have money to trace guns, and to what end?
I wonder if 15 million undocumented aliens can not be deported, because it would be too difficult, how 30 million "assault weapons" will be rounded up? Not to mention ammo clips, which are easily made and smuggled.
Reminds me of the "Rockefeller Laws" that did more arm than good.
The Chicago gun law cry really ignores the facts. You can go just outside the city limits and basically buy whatever gun you want...and they do. Using Chicago as a model for gun laws that don't work is like equating outlawing food sales in a stadium but allowing people to bring in their own. Of course there's going to be food brought in.
Comment removed by moderator. ALL CAPS
Using children as a backdrop for this show was right out of the communist playbook (just like when he used it when he forced his health care fiasco on us).
Perhaps he'd like to use some of the children killed by the guns him and Eric Holder allowed to go to Mexico so they could propagate their progressive agenda. Or perhaps, he'd like to use some of the innocent children maimed and brutally killed by one of his unmanned drones, where they are considered "collateral damage".
From left-wing radical, to scheming community activist, to President of the US in just 15 years, this will be regarded as a dark chapter in American history. But then again, so will the Bush years. 16 years (hopefully that's all) of Bush and Obama is damage that will be hard to correct. But let's hope we try.
"Using children as a backdrop for this show was right out of the communist playbook".
Using children as a 'backdrop' for staged events is the favorite technique of American religion and the Nazi Government. The 1938 census showed that Germany was 40% Catholic and 55% Protestant. Don't focus all your attention on the Commies as there are much bigger surprises waiting in the Wings.
Ahhh, yet again, President Obama, et al. has chosen one of the favorite strategies of the Islamic Terrorists, surround yourself with children when you intend to do harm to others. Then, it will be difficult for those who you have harmed to retaliate. Disgustingly brilliant.
Tell the people they can't have something and then they want it all the more.
Remember the word "Prohibition"?
Black Helicopters! Full of UN-NATO troops!! Led by Obama brown shirts!!!
The ranting bleagh-bleagh from republican gun nuts over the next 24 hours is gonna be a blast, so to speak..
Complete waste of time. Nothing that will stop gun violence
So we don't need any new laws. By executive orders Obama has established 23 new gun control programs. Of course non of these will address controlling the deranged mentally ill or the criminal element.
One of them requires the federal government to actually enforce existing laws
Obama's go-to liberal think tank (Center for American Progress) provided him and Biden with 13 of the 23 new gun control policies along with the talking point to be announced to the public.
Imagine my surprise because preventing RUNNING GUNS TO MEXICO was NOT one of the EOs.
----
Has Holder been arrested yet?
Hey guys! I just found 500 million dollars. Let's spend it! Hire me some more bureaucrats and get my box of medals!
Nobody supports random violence, but expect this package to have as little effect as the cell-phone law does in Nevada. Want to correct any social challenge? Address the root causes first; put the burden of restrictions upon lawful citizens last.
So the Pro Mass Murder activists don't want their assault rifles and 100 round clips to be banned. We will see what congress does and if they do nothing, we will see many new faces in congress in 2016.
apparently obama didn't read these clearly before signing, little does he realize that #9 is already part of the process...it was traced back to him and his croonies re; fast & furious..
1. "Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system."
2. "Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system."
3. "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system."
4. "Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks."
5. "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."
6. "Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers."
7. "Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign."
8. "Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission)."
9. "Issue a presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations."
10. "Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement."
11. "Nominate an ATF director."
12. "Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations."
13. "Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime."
14. "Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."
15. "Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies."
16. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."
17. "Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities."
18. "Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers."
19. "Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education."
20. "Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover."
21. "Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges."
22. "Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations."
23. "Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health."
"Las Vegas has one of the highest rates of gun deaths per capita for urban areas."
look at the city demographics...if your political correctness will allow you to do so.
"And for you Second Amendment absolutists - have you written your representatives to demand the right to buy tanks, grenades and drones? "
Hey motor:
the 2nd already gives people that right. We will exercise it when we need to. If we felt we needed grenades, tanks, etc., we would have already gotten them.
The constitution authorizes and requires the overthrow of the government, if needed, as well.
16. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."
One of the EOs added a reporting requirement not in Obamacare requiring your personal Doctor to ask you if you have a gun in your home. So next time you go for a flu shot you will be asked if you have a gun. Really.
Such hypocrisy. Obama and all major political figures have armed guards. I dare them to lead by example and announce to the world that they will no longer allow their security teams to carry guns.
Why is it okay for Obama's kids to have armed security but not my kids?
MotorSports, the Libs love to kill kids before they are born. Abortion on demand kills more than bullets. Nice try with your hate-speech though.
500 million for what? The headline gives no real answers. But makes no good headline.
"the Libs love to kill kids before they are born"
What data do you have that abortions are performed only on liberals?
Second amendment violation Mr President and Mr. Vice President
...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I'm a gun owner and while I have no problem with more stringent checks and regulations, mandatory training and increased education regarding gun locks this won't cure the violence problem. the Virginia Tech shooter had two glocks and multiple ten round magainesand killed 32 people. The mass shooters there and at Aurora and Sandy hook were not stupid people. All were intelligent, escpecailly James Holmes. What will happen is the next shooter will adapt. They can steal a military style weapon or may already own one. They can simply use a handgun with multiple magazines and reload, all it takes is practice and you can reload easily. They can purchase an EN 5x7 handgun which fires powerful rounds. The will adapt and still kill people is that is their goal. Understand, I'm not saying something needs to be done and again I'm all for better restrictions and regualtions. My point is this in itself is only a starting point. many more issues will need to be addressed before we can say all is well. Even if we arm and train school police for every school in the country violence can still happen. But I'd rather have it and not need that not have it all. I still say we could envelope local school police into a national school police force under Homeland Security, as they did with Border patrol and Customs. We had funding for two wars, i believe we can find funding for our kids.
Retired Army vet, resposible gun owner and ccw holder.
The 14th Executive Order will be the most effective: "directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence." In my opinion, the other 22 orders are just fluff for fluff's sake.
BTW - a big THANKS to hav1byte (Samuel jaramillo jr) for posting all 23 of the executive orders. Don't know why they were not posted in the article.
Karoun Demirjian, is there a place where these are going to be posted on the Sun's web site? Or in the paper?
...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
----------
It's already been infringed. Many times.
There are two ways to go. Either the Republicans in the House get together and come up with a meaningful gun control plan themselves or they can wait until after the elections when they lose the House and then Nancy Pelosi will cram an even more stringent bill down your throat. Didn't Boehner learn from the fiscal cliff deal? He kicked it to the Senate who passed something and he essentially was forced to accept it. He would have been better off passing his own plan.
You can b*tch and moan all you want about Obama usurping your rights or you can get your Repub. Representatives to do something other than obstruct. Like the election, like the fiscal cliff...Obama will get what he wants one way or the other. Fighting it is futile, like the election, like the fiscal cliff.
It's in their court. Do something meaningful that you can tolerate as a gun proponent OR accept something that's likely going to make you mad as hell. (I'd choose option 1)
Nancy is waiting....to pounce. Don't think you can't lose the House in 2014. It's the same argument you gave about Romney winning the presidency.
It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. I think it is reasonable to extrapolate "weapons" from "sword" and include guns as well.
That said, there are many posters here who should be very thankful that speech is not restricted or even banned in the same way they would castrate the Second Amendment. (Although more than one poster here has called for exactly that kind of restriction on people who are not liberal.)
After all, if the saying I referenced at the start is true, wouldn't be logical for the government to have the power to regulate that as well since speech is demonstrably more dangerous?
I thought we had seen new levels of hate on display during the last campaign season from some who post here, but clearly we have only seen ripples on a very deep pool.
It is the knowledge that there are people who actually hold some of these beliefs that is fueling the rush to buy arms.
@tom,
so it's "my way or the highway?"...not how it works in this country.
If obama oversteps his bounds the democratic party will pay the price in the next election.
most likely pelosi and reid are out already.
@stopthebs
C'mon, you guys were saying the same thing about Obama. Geesh, do I have to pull out the messages...???
"one term Obama"
"Romney in a landslide"
"Obama gone in November"
And on and on and on and on
I heard the same thing about Republicans standing against a fiscal cliff deal. What happened?
Your problem is it WILL be "my way or the highway" unless you take it upon yourselves to do something meaningful. Obstruction won't work. Pelosi and Reid are likely going nowhere and what is growing more and more likely is that Republicans lose more ground in the house. This coming from a guy who guaranteed an Obama victory back in July.
If Republicans continue to take a stand against everything and not push thru their own agenda (as happened on the fiscal cliff), I guarantee you will get the same result. Something passed that you loathe vs something you might not like entirely but in light of the choice, is a better alternative.
James Reza nailed it
The seventh round bufoonery has rendered all NY Glocks useless and made a million more felons. UNLESS you shoot a sub compact in .45 or .45 GAP, that hold six max ... your screwed.
There are many things that influence people to shoot.
While there are a significant number of fearful people in the general public, as evidenced here in some of the comments and elsewhere, there are also seriously mentally ill people.
Schizophrenics, people with paranoia & delusions, veterans suffering from PTSD, unemployed people in panic states, deeply depressed individuals all are potential individual and mass murderers.
Clearly, mental health services are an essential element to lowering these senseless murders that are on the increase.
Some people who buy a gun suddenly get a new courage and are ready on the spot to use it to "protect" themselves. Guns can facilitate more violence just be instilling a false sense of power and security from ownership in some people.
As media stirs the pot, it drives an engine that can set off such horrible events.
Any form of communication, including the Opinions forums, can be partly responsible for violence. It depends on whether there are rational or irrational communications.
Fear is the path to violence. That doesn't mean that common sense shouldn't be applied. The problem is some people can't recognize when the pass from rational to irrational fears. The latter are the people that concern me.
There is no reason why sensible gun restrictions cannot be implemented, without endangering the 2nd Amendment.
"The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual the right to possess guns in the home for self defense. They Justices also stated that this right is "not unlimited" -- elected officials may enact common sense gun laws to protect communities."
I've heard the same paranoia about gun laws for some 50 years. All the fears expressed in the past are still being expressed, without any realization of those fears.
However, there are lots of profits for gun and ammunition manufacturers, talk show hosts, advertising and media companies.
In fact, there are big profits in manipulating people by fear.
It is time to do some concrete and permanent regulations of guns, ammunition, background checks, and I would prefer that included comprehensive mental evaluations before gun licensing would be issued. That latter one is my wish, not something being considered.
Add another category of dangerous gun owners. Those people unable to control their anger, who launch into rage. They may appear normal in all other ways but this, and become dangerous individuals with guns.
It is important to not pass over the rage of these people. They can be in abusive relationships.
It is no small thing to inform authorities when violence has occurred. It may be the only way one of these people gets mental health services before they go too far.
He does not have support of the people. Maybe those that voted with their hands out... but he does not have mine.
THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA AND VICE PRESIDENT
BIDEN!
YES, YES, YES!
We, the majority of Americans are on your side.
Nobody but nobody needs an assault rifle or
mega clips, PERIOD.
ONLY CRAZY PEOPLE DO.
Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling
MSNBC and NBC want a gun ban? Why not start with the GE mini gun made by their parent company?
Those of you that believe that the Dems will "pay for it" in the next election are still living in 1992.
The demographics have changed for good in this country, and the Republicans are quickly becoming a regional party, although they have yet to realize it.
The other factor that you're not taking into consideration, is that the Republicans lost the female vote by 11% in the last election.
If you believe that by bringing MORE guns into the equation is going to make them cone to the Republican side, you're sadly mistaken.
A mother will put NOTHING before her children, and they are heavily against the position that the NRA is taking in this matter.
That doesn't bode well for the Republican Party.
By the way, Noah Pozner was one of the victims in the shootings. He was 6 years old. The bottom half of his face was blown off with an assault rifle that some people believe is their 2nd Amendment right to have. I have absolutely NO doubt that I can protect my home with my hand gun, I fail to see how others feel that they can't do the same.
Click on the link if you so dare to see the child that a mother had to see with the bottom half of his face missing.
http://forward.com/image/2/290/0/5/asset...
The children will be much more affected by the huge debt Obama is leaving them then photo-op gun control. I suppose it does appeal to the low-information dim voter though.
About the ONLY THING that made sense was an EO suggesting local cops do background checks before returning confiscated weapons. Now, we could assume that this is not already SOP but it's probably just O. and Biden claiming "leadership" for things that are already Standard Operating Procedure. But then again, WHO returns CONFISCATED weapons?
Reza 1:19: Would incarceration of the violent help? Violent "people" must not be allowed to do violence. It's not simply "mental health", at least not in this climate or medical state of the arts. Unless and until we have a practical means of scanning a person for propensity to put their interests before everyone else, we will continue to have violent crime. ANOTHER reason to cut back on social welfare--it breeds the violent mindset of me first, you never. I'm entitled to your money, food, housing, property. There doesn't seem to be ANY WAY to correct the mindset once acquired--some probably innate but compounded by welfare.
Right on Rusty 6:43. As terrible as it may sound, you are simply not adult in your thinking if you cannot get your mind around this: Government is not the answer and cannot change mathematics--a reasonable taxation to provide for the common good does NOT include spending beyond your means. As precious as your children are, you cannot do more than all YOU can do. Buying into the hype that someone else can pay taxes for you to spend on your kids just will NOT work.
Another waste of money for Ohbama, these little simple changes he thinks is going to change everything, absolutely will not work. The law abiding gun owners will have to pay the $500 million and will not affect the thug boys at all, because they don't obey the laws anyway. Senseless.
The NRA and it's membership continues to fight to supply mass murderers with the tools they need to murder innocent men,women and most recently children. How do you gun nuts plan on answering to Jesus when your time comes? Tell him about the 2nd amendment so he can see what an idiot you are.