President Obama is set to bypass Congress next week and impose new gun control measures by executive order, according to a report.
“The president has made clear the most impactful way to address the crisis of gun violence in our country is for Congress to pass some common sense gun safety measures,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said on Thursday.
“But the president has also said he’s fully aware of the unfortunate political realities in this Congress,” Schultz added. “That is why he has asked his team to scrub existing legal authorities to see if there’s any additional action we can take administratively. The president has made clear he’s not satisfied with where we are, and expects that work to be completed soon.”
Principally, the measures would tighten the so-called “gun show loophole.” Federal law requires dealers who sell firearms for the “principal objective of livelihood and profit” to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Those dealers are consequently required to conduct background checks on purchasers.
Those who do not sell firearms for that principal objective are exempt from the requirement. The expected change would not necessarily mean a substantial increase in the number of applicants seeking to trade firearms, but it would enable more federal prosecutions of those who sell firearms used in the commission of crime.
The plan follows repeated efforts by Democrats to pass the changes through Congress. Those efforts have failed, generally with opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats. Executive action is likely to face judicial scrutiny that will easily last through the end of 2016, but it will also set it up as an election-year issue during the presidential campaign.
The move will precede Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress, which is set for Jan. 12.
