With gun control legislation having no chance of passing a Republican-controlled Congress, Second Amendment advocates are now warning that President Obama will attempt to move alone in his last two years to enact his gun agenda.
Although White House sources say this charge is mere “rhetoric,” gun-rights advocates point to the administration’s recent move against a popular type of ammunition, which was reported last month by the Washington Examiner. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has proposed a ban on 5.56 mm (.223) M855 “lightgreen tip” ammunition used in the AR-15. The Bureau argues that these bullets can pierce bulletproof vests used by law enforcement officials.
Critics see the move as an attempt by the Obama administration to circumvent Congress, a potential trial balloon for other efforts to restrict ammunition.
The White House counters that it had nothing to do with crafting the ammo ban and insists Obama is not planning a push to do through executive action what could not be accomplished legislatively.
When asked if Obama was exploring unilateral moves on gun control, a senior administration official replied, “No. That’s nothing more than rhetoric from the other side.”
The most vocal critics of new gun and ammo restrictions don’t see it that way.
“President Obama is desperate to enact gun control that he couldn’t get through Congress. He tried to ban America’s most popular rifle and failed,” Chris Cox, executive director of National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, told the Washington Examiner. “If Obama gets his way, he will have set a dangerous new precedent that paves the way for even more sweeping bans on other common forms of ammunition.”
Pointing to immigration, detractors say that Obama has professed an inability to take executive action before, only to reverse course amid pressure from his progressive base.
After months of relative quiet on the seemingly chronic gun control debate, both sides are mobilizing in the wake of the ATF pitch.
Nearly 240 lawmakers, mostly Republicans, signed a letter to ATF Director Todd Jones urging his agency to abandon the proposed ammo ban.
Defenders insist the provision carries real public safety benefits.
“We’re acting here to protect law enforcement officers,” argued Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
And Everitt discounted the idea that Obama would take executive action on guns in his final act as president.
“He’s really done everything he can,” Everitt said. “There’s not much more he can do. The responsibility really lies with Congress.”
In 2013, Obama called for tighter background checks on gun purchases, a prohibition on assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. But even a bipartisan bill on background checks failed to pass in the Senate amid opposition from both GOP lawmakers and red-state Democrats.
In the absence of legislative action, the president enacted a number of executive orders, toughening federal enforcement of gun laws.
Obama as recently as Friday lamented his inability to get new gun laws through Congress, a task that now appears virtually impossible.
“Our homicide rates are so much higher than other industrialized countries — by like a mile,” Obama said at a town hall in South Carolina. “Most of that is attributable to the easy, ready availability of firearms, particularly handguns.”
“I thought after what happened at Sandy Hook, that would make us think about” laws to reduce gun violence, he added. “You would have thought that’s got to be enough of a motivator for us to want to do something about this. We couldn’t get it done.”
Obama hardly gave the impression that he was about to embark on a new push on gun restrictions, sounding dejected about the path forward.
“I’ll be honest with you,” he told the South Carolina audience. “In the absence of more … heroic and courageous stances from our legislators, both at the state level and federal level, it is hard to reduce the easy availability of guns.”
