Former astronaut Mark Kelly, who runs Americans for Responsible Solutions with his wife, Gabby Giffords, wrote an op-ed for CNN explaining why he supported the president’s announcement this week that he would take executive action to expand background checks, provide more resources for the mentally ill and increase funding for the ATF, among other steps:

The President acted because Congress hasn’t in the face of our country’s gun violence crisis that claims 32,000 lives a year. Our kids are 14 times more likely be murdered with a gun than kids in other countries. Women in America are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in our peer countries.

As a nation and a people, this is not how we want to stand out. But Congress has decided to stand down; almost every time, it has stood with the gun lobby.

So the President used his authority to act. His action narrows gaps in our laws by requiring anyone who sells a significant number of guns or operates like a commercial dealer to get a license and require their buyers to pass a criminal background check, just like existing licensed dealers already do.

With the law clarified, our law enforcement officials will be better able to enforce the laws already on the books.

It requires dealers to finally have to report lost or stolen guns. It increases the number of people processing background checks by 50% so that more dangerous people are blocked from making a purchase. And it works to strengthen funding for mental health treatment by $500 million.

This is hardly the stuff of massive upheaval. It is the stuff of common sense.

Already, though, the gun lobby’s leaders have handed out the talking points to the people they back. If you haven’t yet, you’ll probably hear them on your TV soon.

You’ll hear that this action is another step toward our government taking away the rights of law-abiding gun owners. The reality is that this proposal doesn’t restrict how many or even what kinds of guns people can buy or sell. Gabby or I could go buy another gun tomorrow just the same as we could before.

You’ll hear that the President’s proposal is out of step with the American people. Research done on behalf of the organization Gabby and I started three years ago Friday, Americans for Responsible Solutions, found that 73% of Americans said they approve of Obama specifically taking this kind of action to narrow the loopholes in our background check laws.

And gun owners? Some 64% of them said they support it.

Read the whole thing here.

This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

6 replies on “Mark Kelly: Obama’s Exec Actions on Guns “Is the Stuff of Common Sense””

  1. Reposted from another article. Author David W.

    The President mocked Americans as believing he has a conspiracy to confiscate their guns.

    Why would Americans distrust our President? Top ten reasons.

    #1 Hope and change
    #2 The border is secure
    #3 Deportations are at an all time high
    #4 If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor
    #5 The average family will save $2500 per year on health care insurance
    #6 Christians are clinging to their bibles and their guns
    #7 ISIS is the JV team
    #8 Pass the bill so you can read it
    #9 Iran nuclear deal
    #10 There won’t be amnesty for illegals

    Come on America you can trust him now.

    And #11 If you disagree with me on global warming you are mentally ill. Just look how well that fits with his executive action on background checks of the mentally ill.

    Come on America, there’s nothing wrong here.

    ——————————————————————————————————–

    I can only add that it may seem like common sense to many, but how many still trust him? How many actually know what is going on?

    Here is our competition…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33D3NOl0-ag

  2. The man wants to disarm America. Plain and simple. Anybody who can’t see that ain’t got sense enough to pour piss out of a boot. During that circle jerk last night he must have said 9 million times that he wasn’t trying to take our guns. After a while you had to wonder who he was trying to convince, us or himself.

  3. Hey Mark,
    B.O. got his ass handed to him and on CNN believe it or not.
    Amazing what can transpire when the teleprompter is gone and all of the questioners are not
    pre-screened and Barry doesn’t get to filibuster for a half an hour after each question.
    Anybody mention “fast and furious” and our late border patrol agent? Any wonder that we are convinced that he really does want to confiscate our guns?

  4. Reposting bullshit originally posted by David W. will never win you any points with those of us who have common sense. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you will not have any supporters.

  5. I see the paranoids are posting. He’s going to take our guns and make us into Godless Communists. What a load of crap.

  6. Paranoia is a healthy response when dealing with any politician.

    I don’t trust Obama to make any decision that will benefit America in any way.

    Americans are beginning to see how blatant the propaganda being pushed by this current administration, their handlers and enablers.

    Tell me how the “Do Not Fly List” is Constitutional, then tell me how prohibiting an American citizen from purchasing a firearm based on that list is Constitutional.

    Secret lists and policing your populations right to bear arms based on mental health seems like something the KGP might have done in the past, no?

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