President Barack Obama referenced the Jan. 8, 2011 mass shooting in Tucson during the announcement of his executive actions on gun control—the tragedy’s fifth anniversary is just three days away.

The president said during a speech this morning that when he saw former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she recovered from being shot in the head, he wasn’t sure she was going to survive. That day, six people died, and a total of 13, including Giffords and former congressman Ron Barber, were wounded.

Then there’s the deadly shooting of 26 people, including 20 kindergartners and first-grades, in Newtown, Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago (the president tearfully remembered the young victims), the 2012 shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, and the 330 mass shootings that occurred in 2015—these are reasons enough to enact tougher policies on who gets to own a gun and who doesn’t. 

From now on, everyone who plans to sell weapons must get a federal license and conduct background checks or be subject to criminal prosecution—whether selling guns online or at the gun show. This is an attempt to close the so-called “gun show loophole.” Obama said the FBI will make background checks more efficient and quicker, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is getting more funding to hire a greater number of agents and investigators. Obama also demanded improving gun safety technology.

He said mental health coverage in this country needs dramatic changes to make sure everyone is getting the care they need. Billions of dollars have been cut from mental health services in the U.S., and “For those in Congress who so often rush to blame mental illness for mass shootings…here is your chance to support these efforts. Put your money where your mouth is,” Obama said in his speech. The executive actions ask for $500 million in new funding for mental health services.  


U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva celebrated Obama’s move, and issued this statement:

Gabby’s attack made this issue personal for every single Member of Congress. If not then, then when? If not after Newtown, when 26 children and adults were massacred, then when? If not after terrorists opened fire at a facility for the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino, then when? The answer is never for Congressional Republicans, because they’re already bought and sold by the gun industry.

The NRA will try to say this is solely about taking away our Second Amendment rights, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their number one goal is maintaining gun sales, while the number one goal of Congressional leaders should be the safety of the American people. President Obama took steps today to rise above the GOP’s intransigence on gun violence, and proposed much-needed investments in our enforcement and mental health capabilities. I look forward to working with him and our next president to build on this success.

While others greatly criticized the president.

U.S. Sen. John McCain issued this statement:

President Obama’s executive orders on gun control are just the first of thousands of new unilateral actions that the White House plans to roll out this year that are projected to cost American businesses and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. With these unconstitutional executive orders, President Obama has once again ignored the separation of powers and disregarded the rule of law. Regardless of merit, this is a classic abuse of executive power. These issues must be debated and decided by the representatives of the people – not by executive fiat. I will continue to uphold my obligation as an elected official in Congress to push back on all of President Obama’s unconstitutional actions.

Statement from U.S. Rep. Martha McSally:

While we can all agree we want to keep our communities safe from terrorism and gun violence, today’s orders from the President, which he’s unilaterally forcing on the American people, would do little to improve our safety. If he really wanted to improve security, he’d get serious about addressing the very real, very capable ISIS threat. His Administration’s feeble response has allowed radical Islamists to grow and spread their terror globally and at home, as we’ve seen in the recent string of massacres that have occurred at their hands in the United States, Europe, and around the world.

In addition, while the President’s orders recognize we must better address mental illness, he should be working with Congress, not going around us. I’ve introduced a bipartisan bill to help our communities better identify and treat mental illness and help prevent the mentally ill from obtaining firearms. It has widespread support from the mental health community, social workers, law enforcement, and Second Amendment advocates, to name a few. It also gets to the root of the problem and is the type of legislation that can actually move forward in a divided government, which is where our focus should be. I’ll continue to work to get results and make a difference for Southern Arizonans.

This isn’t about infringing anyone’s constitutional rights, it is a commonsense approach to make this country safer, Obama said. It’s as simple as passing a background check, then people can purchase a gun. The way the system is set up right now makes it easy for dangerous people with serious criminal convictions—from domestic violence to aggravated assault—to get their hands on weapons, the president added.

After Sandy Hook, Obama supported a gun control bill that went nowhere because most Republicans in Congress voted against it, even though many Republican voters support commonsense gun control, he said.

“How did this become such a partisan issue?” Obama asked. “Gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage but it cannot hold America hostage. We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we can stop one act of evil, one act of violence. We know background checks make a difference.”

After Connecticut passed a law demanding tougher background checks to buy weapons, gun violence decreased by 40 percent, while in states like Missouri, where residents can purchase guns without restriction, gun violence rates are among the worst in the nation, Obama said. 

“Yes, it will be hard and it won’t happen overnight, it won’t happen during this Congress, it won’t happen during my presidency, but a lot of things don’t happen overnight,” he said. “A woman’s right to vote didn’t happen overnight, liberation of African-Americans didn’t happen overnight, LGBT rights…that was decades worth of work. Just [because] it’s hard, that is no excuse not to try.”

“If we love our kids, love this country and care about its future, we can find the courage to vote…mobilize…cut through all the noise and do what a sensible country would do. That is what we are doing today, and tomorrow we should do more, and we should do more the day after that. If we do that, we will leave behind a nation stronger than the one we inherited.”

This article appears in Dec 31, 2015 – Jan 6, 2016.

I was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I moved to Tucson about 10 years ago. Since I was old enough to enjoy reading, I developed an interest in writing, and telling stories through different...

21 replies on “Obama on Gun Control Executive Actions: ‘Gun Lobby May Be Holding Congress Hostage But It Cannot Hold America Hostage’”

  2. “Good guys” will be able to get guns, because they will pass the criminal background checks.

  3. Not if their doctor mistakenly reported them or they were put on the new fly list or they were registered Republicans. maria you only need look no further than the punitive illegal actions by the IRS. You want to blindly trust a government that has proven it can’t be trusted? And I’m talking about both political parties.

    In every future shooting involving mental illness claims, the doctors will be named in multi million dollar lawsuits. Either for misdiagnosis or not reporting. Up goes healthcare costs.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/25/terrorist-watch-list_n_5617599.html

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2015/06/22/irs-policy-may-have-violated-first-amendment/

    Hope is nice but facts are more important. And this will not be the end of more and more laws that do not work. It’s how your party gets you to keep voting for them each election.

  4. US Presidents do not pass laws. Congress does. This man hates the USC and is acting as a dictator. Congress can overturn it and then they can impeach him. He wants everybody to follow his laws but he doesn’t want to follow ours.

    Who elected this guy? And to think people paid tuition to allow him to teach constitutional law to them?… That was… in between his community organizing gigs.

  5. Justice Joseph Story: On the Second Amendment

    “The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections and domestic usurpations of power by rulers.

    It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace both from the enormous expenses with which they are attended and the facile means which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers to subvert the government or trample upon the rights of the people.

    The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers and will generally even if these are successful the first instance enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

    And yet though this truth would seem so clear and the importance of a well regulated would seem so undeniable it cannot be disguised that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline and a disposition from a sense of its burthens to be rid of all regulations.

    How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger that indifference may lead to disgust and disgust to contempt and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.”

    Story, Joseph (1833) Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company. Cambridge: Brown, Shattuck, and Co. Volume III, page 746–747, §1890.

    “Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
    – John Adams

    We can look to our generally FAILED system of National Public Education in NOT providing our Students with the understanding of the Essential Responsibilities of a Citizen in our Democracy: Respect for the Diversity within Our Society , Mutual Dependence, and the Responsibility for a Citizen to provide Assistance to Others when assistance is Necessary.

    Guns do NOT spontaneously pull their trigger…People do!!!!

  6. Gun Lobbyists May Be Holding Congress Hostage But They Cannot Hold America Hostage? Fucking stupid. How about something crippling this nation. Affordable Health Care novel idea except Insurance companies Lobbyists Fucked us and he let them. What about Big Pharma’s lobbyist? Now the leading cause for bankruptcy is Medical bills cause of these two things.

  7. Unfortunately, gun control won’t stop the killings, only humans can do that, and were not developed enough to handle problems without violence. Maybe in another 1,000 years, if we last that long.

  8. Never forget Benghazi. The President attempted to arm the Syrians and instead got four Americans killed. Then he jailed a film producer for making a video that Hillary lied about. So now he dictatorially forces Americans to prove their innocence.

    Maybe these guys should be the ones standing down.

  9. Tell me just ONE mass shooting that a background check would have prevented?
    Liberalism at it’s finest. Symbolism over substance.
    I loved the phony tears routine. After all, it’s for the children. Never sheds one when a baby is killed in the womb or on the streets of Chicago. ( unless it’s by a white cop)
    I’ve never been In trouble , but it scares him that I might own a firearm. However, it’s perfectly O.K. for Iran to own a nuke.
    I guess it’s me.

  10. Wew, wipe your mouth Maria, it still has some Kool Aid on it.

    Maybe if you actually hung out with some Americans at a gun range, instead of only brown people at your communist conventions you would start to love America and assimilate.

    I fear your indoctrination might be too much to overcome. How does your home country feel about communism Maria? Can you get a job their in “journalism”?

  11. I’d like to know where they will get the funding and the manpower these little jewels require. No doubt some tax will be levied on the general populace, or they’ll hide it in some other Bill for fixing roads or bridges etc……….Either way it’ll come out of our hides, and the One-percenters will pay nothing because they “know” someone in the government………..

  14. Here is the quote from your link Guardian:

    “In times of emergency, the president can override congress and issue executive orders with almost limitless power. Abraham Lincoln used an executive order in order to fight the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson issued one in order to arm the United States just before it entered World War I, and Franklin Roosevelt approved Japanese internment camps during World War II with an executive order. Many other executive orders are on file and could be enacted at any time.”

    Is that the level of concern (emergency) for an executive order which was best described as rearranging the furniture? From Rahm Emmanuel’s lips to his pen, “never let a crisis go to waste.” He can’t even say “radical Islam” in a war he has turned into Viet Naum, but go after Americans, piece of cake.

    I heard one interview this morning which claimed, “if being reported as having a mental condition will be reported by the government, the majority of Americans would not seek help. Will it affect college entrance, or job applications?

    Once again, regardless of constitutionality, it is worthless. Much like the rest of his Presidency. Unintended consequences. Liberalism and Marxism.

  15. I finally decided to fast so I could listen to King Obummer’s remarks from yesterdays show. This way I’d have less to mop up. Buy a gun on line without a background check? Really? Allow me to educate you your Highness. If you buy a gun on line the seller can’t just wrap it up and ship it to you. You have to find someone with a F.F.L. A gun shop is your best bet. They will charge you X amount to handle the transaction. He sends the seller the information he needs. A back ground check is then performed. If you pass, the seller sends the weapon to him and he hands it over to you.
    Wrong again, Sire.

  16. Of course Obama’s executive action won’t make America that much safer. There are already too many guns out there right now, and paranoids of every water buying them up as fast as they can.
    Historically, controls on assault-weapons should have never ended. There are a frightening number of combat weapons in the hands of aggressive people, the mentally ill, and in the hands of people who are just plain clueless.

    Mass murders get the most attention, but there is rapidly increasing collateral mortality. Accidental deaths of children, parents, neighbors and whoever might be in back of that person being shot at. Armed residents are contributing to an increasing rate of over-reactions to perceived threats. When you factor in these risks, the average family is not safer for owning a gun. The actual fact is that owning guns just makes your family more vulnerable.

    It may be too late to take away this threat to our country and our society, but it would be prudent to slow it’s proliferation. Having licensed dealers and background checks is a good start. It is reasonable, and only a threat to those who wish to be unlawful in the pursuit of their own self interests.

  17. Another ” assault weapon” speech from a numb nut who has no idea which end of the barrel the round comes out of.

  19. he FBI reported Monday that the agency conducted a total of 23,141,970 back ground checks in the year 2015. The number of weapons in the U.S. has not been established.

    Common sense would indicate, that gun owners throughout the Continental U.S. will vote for the party that will ensure them that their 2nd amendment right of the constitution, is well protected. In this upcoming General election. a number of Conservative, Democrats, and gun owners from the party, will either stay home on election day or cast their vote for the opposing team.

    I’m surprised the A.C.L.U. is not standing up for our constitutional right to bear arms. It seems as though they pick and choose, whom they will represent and if the agenda in question, is within liberal policy. Liberals love their constitutional rights, but show extreme caution, as to whom they are willing to share them with.

  20. I love how the phony surrounds himself with the families of victims of gun violence to garner up sympathy. I notice the family of Kate Stienle wasn’t invited. I wonder if that’s because she was shot by an ILLEGAL alien? Hmmmm?

  21. They didn’t even invite the survivors of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco.

    Never mind. The BATF made sure there were none.

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