President Obama Addresses Gun Control

Gun violence and senseless shootings have plagued the United States in recent years. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution gives all Americans the right to keep and bear arms. It is this right that allows people to defend themselves. It is also this same right that allows gun violence to take lives. The burden and the pressure to finally end gun violence once and for all have rested heavily on U.S. President Barrack Obama’s shoulders.

According to him, gun violence is his biggest frustration. Having failed to pass effective gun laws in 2015, he finally came up with executive actions this 2016. The plan, if it succeeds, would mandate sellers online and at gun shops to do background checks. Moreover, states would need to provide information on people who are disqualified from owning a gun due to mental illness or domestic violence. Mental health care facilities would receive investments from the U.S. Congress so that they would be more accessible. The FBI would also hire more examiners to do more exhaustive background checks.

Executive actions are informal proposals and must not be confused with executive orders. Executive actions are not legally binding and even those that carry legal weight could be undone by the U.S. Congress. Nevertheless, President Obama promised that his executive actions are within the bounds of the Second Amendment and gave assurance that they will not break the people’s rights to bear arms.

Many people in the U.S. Congress were not happy about the president’s executive actions. Some people think that his announcement was an overreach of power. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said not one of Obama’s executive actions would have stopped the shootings. He added that the root cause of the recent shootings is mental illness. Furthermore, several republicans promised to eliminate all of the president’s measures once they take over the White House. Rand Paul, a republican presidential aspirant, also vowed to do everything he could to fight Obama’s executive actions.

The president became tearful as he expressed the urgency on gun control. He understands that his executive actions will not abolish gun violence. He knows that he wouldn’t be able to put an end to all evil deeds but he believes that his measures would help prevent at least one act of evil. He hopes that it would save and protect lives and spare families from losing their loved ones.