President Obama’s mission to address gun violence in America began on Friday, December 31st, New Year’s Eve. Obama released his regular recorded Saturday address earlier than usual. In it was a clear message that he would forge ahead and do something – anything – to make it harder for potential killers to buy firearms. He had tried – and failed – to tighten gun laws after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.This week, frustrated by inaction and just a few weeks after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Obama made his move. He invoked executive power, bypassing Congress, to address loopholes in background checks for gun sales. That was followed by a press conference to officially unveil his executive actions in which the president, uncharacteristically emotional, shed tears. Two days later, he was live on television at a town hall on gun control hosted by CNN. He capped the week by writing an opinion column, “Barack Obama: Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility,” published in the New York Times.
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Presidential Tears, Executive Actions and a Townhall
Republicans’ Do-nothingness on Guns
It is one thing to be in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. It is another to do nothing and then assume a superior posture of purposeful neglect, as though do-nothingness were a policy and smug intransigence a philosophy
An Emotion Obama Announces New Measures to Tighten Gun Laws
Wiping tears, the president spoke of the young school children during the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,”
Here is How Obama’s Most Controversial New Action on Guns Really Works. It’s Fairly Modest.
It clarifies which gun-sellers are supposed to obtain a federal firearms license. Since guns sold by licensed dealers are subject to federal background checks, and guns sold by private sellers are not, this change, by extension, would also clarify which additional gun sales are subject to background checks.
Gun Control: Americans Search Yet Again for Antidote to Gun Violence
Two weeks to the day that a heavily armed radicalized Muslim couple killed 14 people at a work holiday party in San Bernardino, California, President Barack Obama tried to reassure Americans nervous about terrorism. Flanked by top officials at the National Counterterrorism Center, Obama said there are no “specific and credible” threats to the homeland. New polls indicate more Americans are concerned about a terrorist attack than gun violence, although one survey shows seven in 10 believe mass shootings have become a normal part of American life. The right to bear arms is among the most hotly debated constitutional issues. Demands for stricter gun control laws grow louder with each inexplicable act of violence: Sandy Hook, Columbine and, now, San Bernardino. The gun lobby and its supporters are no less pained by these tragedies, but say no law can stop a determined individual from buying a weapon. It is a familiar debate – one that continued on the week that first of the victims of San Bernardino were laid to rest.
Calls Grow Louder for New US Terror Strategy
Until 2011, this was the face of international terrorism, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. That year, President Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for a top secret mission to take out bin Laden, who had been found living in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The mission succeeded and for a long time much of the world relaxed, knowing the man who was behind September 11th was gone forever. Just three years later, the Islamic State took al-Qaida’s slot as the most dangerous terrorist organization, emerging out of the wreckage of Iraq with its signature brutality of beheading hostages and taking huge swathes of territory. A president once admired for acting boldly against al-Qaida is now under withering criticism for not doing enough to stop this latest incarnation of radical Islam. With the shooting deaths of 14 Americans at a workplace holiday gathering in California by a radicalized Muslim-American couple last week, a new poll shows Americans are now just as nervous as they were right after September 11th.
Let’s Stop Pretending that America is the Land of Liberty
[O]ne could have a debate about whether some crime control or security measure might be worth the potential infringement on our liberties … We long ago shredded most of our important constitutional protections without the slightest evidence that they made anyone safer. Let’s take a quick tour through recent history …
Do Citizens (not police officers) With Guns Ever Stop Mass Shootings?
…Always keep in mind that mass shootings in public places should not be the main focus in the gun debate, whether for gun control or gun decontrol: They on average account for much less than 1 percent of the U.S. homicide rate and are unusually hard to stop through gun control laws…
State of Fear
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fear as “to be afraid of something or someone; to expect or worry about something bad or unpleasant.” To be terrorized is defined as “to cause (someone) to be extremely afraid” or “to force (someone) to do something by using threats or violence.” So, if someone changes their behavior or alter their thought process because they fear guns and the carnage they can wreak, have they been terrorized?
Liberal Media Is Once Again Completely Wrong About Gun Violence
I will give the LA Times some credit–they didn’t give the horrifically inflated figure on gun deaths that pro-gun control groups often peddle to make a case that America is a shooting gallery…. It’s not. Violent crime is at record lows, firearm-related homicides are down, and this editorial board knows that California is one of the most […]
San Bernardino Shooting Just Opened Up a Can of Worms Far Bigger Than Gun Control
But the greater question for all the mass shootings is the motivation behind why the weapons were purchased in the first place. Both suspects were Muslim, which makes an easy case for blaming the shooting on religious or cultural extremism against the U.S.
Mass Shooting in San Bernardino: America’s War With Itself
It was frighteningly familiar: people going about their business during a typical week day when suddenly gunfire erupts, killing and wounding innocent civilians. This time it happened at a social services center in San Bernardino, California. Fourteen people are dead, numerous others wounded and two suspects – a young Muslim couple – were shot and killed by police. Terrorism has not been ruled out. Neither has the possibility that the male suspect was a disgruntled employee. Once again, President Barack Obama appeared on television to offer condolences and press for stricter gun laws. Obama also pointed out that these incidents are unique to America. “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no
parallel anywhere else in the world.”
Think Religion Makes Society Less Violent? Think Again.
The theory is simple: If people become less religious, then society will decay. Crime will skyrocket, violence will rise, and once-civilized life will degenerate into immorality and depravity. It’s an old, widespread notion. And it’s demonstrably false.
Like Big Tobacco, Big Guns Should Pay for the Damage It Causes
The time has come for another major industry, the $43 billion firearms and ammunition business, to recognize the damage its products are doing to American citizens and to begin compensation to individuals who have been harmed, as well as to the social institutions that bear an unfair burden because of the actions of a few.