Obama to force through gun control measures

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US Attorney General Loretta Lynch (left) looks toward Obama during a meeting with other top law enforcement officials to discuss what executive actions he can take to curb gun violence, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. — Reuters photo

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch (left) looks toward Obama during a meeting with other top law enforcement officials to discuss what executive actions he can take to curb gun violence, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. — Reuters photo

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will introduce a raft of executive actions to try to reduce US gun violence yesterday, bypassing Congress and launching a bitter 2016 election year fight.

Kicking off his last year in the White House with a defiant show of executive power, Obama will ignore Congressional opposition and take a series of unilateral steps to regulate gun sales and curb illicit purchases.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the measures would tighten rules on who must register as a gun dealer, narrow the “gun show” loophole that allow buyers to dodge background checks and a crackdown on “straw purchases” that see weapons purchased through intermediaries.

It would also encourage the Pentagon, with its vast buying power, to procure weapons from manufacturers who use “ gun safety technology” such as fingerprint scanners.

Obama will discuss the new measures — which Republicans who control Congress, weapons makers and gun enthusiasts have already lambasted as an infringement of constitutional freedoms — in the East Room of the White House yesterday.

Around 30,000 people die in gun violence every year in America, most by suicide.

During Obama’s seven years as president, he has often shown flashes of anger and frustration at Congress’s refusal to tighten gun controls, most notably after the mass slaughter of Connecticut schoolchildren, South Carolina churchgoers and movie watchers.

The measures will stop well short of introducing universal background checks or registering or collecting some of the more than 300 million guns already thought to be in circulation in the United States, moves that would likely need Congressional approval. On the eve of the announcement, Obama admitted his executive actions were “not going to solve every violent crime in this country. It’s not going to prevent every mass shooting. It’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal.”

“It will,” he said, “potentially, save lives in this country” and spare families heartache. But even in taking limited measures, by acting alone and against the will of Congress, Obama has invited political and legal maelstrom. — AFP