114 House Democrats Urge Obama to Sidestep Congress for Gun Control
Written by
AWR Hawkins Published: 25 November 2015
On November 23 Representative Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and 113 of his Democrat colleagues submitted a letter urging President Obama to circumvent Congress by using executive action to expand background checks to cover private gun sales.
The letter says:
The Republican leadership in Congress continues to sit on their hands as gun violence becomes America’s new normal,” and asks Obama to simply go away the people’s elected leadership and institute gun control unilaterally…Since Congress won’t step up, the President should. Through executive action he can help keep guns from criminals, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill. Something needs to be done and since Republicans in Congress can’t even bring themselves to hold a vote, this is the best option to make our country safer and save lives
The House Democrats’ push for executive action came on the same day that 24 Senate Democrats urged Obama to go around Congress and implement more gun control via executive action. The Senate action, which was headed by Sens. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), followed on the heels of Senator Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) calls for action following the August 26 on-air attack against a Virginia reporter and her cameraman.
The August attack by gunman Vester Flanagan and the October 1 attack by a gunman at Umpqua Community College (UCC) both resulted in calls for executive action to expand background checks. However, such calls miss the larger fact that expanding background checks would not have stopped either attack, as Flanagan and the UCC gunman both passed background checks to acquire their firearms. The same is true of the July 23 attack at the Lafayette movie theater, the July 16 attack at Chattanooga military offices, and the June 17 attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The alleged gunmen in all of these instances passed background checks to acquire their firearms.
So basically, we have 114 House Democrats and 24 Senate Democrats pushing gun control for gun control’s sake.
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