President Obama to participate in town hall on gun control
On the heels of several executive actions to combat gun violence in the United States, the President will join CNN’s Anderson Cooper for a live discussion at George Mason University on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET.
The President’s directives are a direct response the recent mass shooting in San Bernadino, California, as well as major shootings in Tuscon, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; and Newtown, Connecticut, among others. President Obama proposed restrictions in 2013 after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, but was ultimately rebuffed by Congress.
The latest push, announced on Tuesday, is modest compared to the 2013 effort, with an emphasis on the clarification and enforcement of existing law. In addition to specifying who is “engaged in the business of selling firearms” and therefore required to obtain a license and conduct background checks, the executive actions call for increased spending on law enforcement, mental health treatment, and so-called “smart” gun technology research.
Several Republican candidates have denounced the President’s efforts. Businessman Donald Trump vowed that, once elected, “I will veto. I will unsign that so fast.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie asserted that “this is going to be another illegal executive action, which I’m sure will be rejected by the court.” And former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said the President was “wrong,” adding, “To use executive power that he doesn’t have is a pattern that is quite dangerous.”
Across the aisle, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “applauded” President Obama for taking action, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders expressed support as well. Outside of the presidential race, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy was more equivocal, calling the actions “necessary but totally insufficient” to fighting gun violence.
Scholars and advocates are mixed in their assessment of the President’s actions.
“These regulations will be challenged in court, as Obama knew they would,” writes South Texas College of Law’s Josh Blackman on his eponymous blog. “But it doesn’t matter. This is simply laying the groundwork for future action when a Congress, more to his liking, is able to act. This is a long-game approach to gun control.”
“Federal gun laws are pretty detailed, so there were significant limits to what the president could do,” writes UCLA School of Law’s Adam Winkler on ACSblog. “Yet, as a group of scholars (including me) advised in a recent letter, the president does have the authority to do more to limit access to guns by felons and the mentally ill and to crack down on rogue gun dealers. The proposals announced today do just that.”
Winkler and George Mason University’s Nelson Lund joined the National Constitution Center’s We the People podcast in October to discuss the history and meaning of the Second Amendment. They also wrote about the Second Amendment for the Center’s Interactive Constitution. Listen:
In November, the Center partnered with the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society to host a debate in Chicago, Illinois, about the Second Amendment. Michael O’Shea of the Oklahoma City School of Law and Carl Bogus of the Roger Williams School of Law squared off on the question of whether the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own and carry a gun. Listen:
Nicandro Iannacci is a web content strategist at the National Constitution Center.
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