The will of the people
Faced with a Congress hostile to even slight restrictions of Second Amendment rights, the Obama administration is exploring potential changes to gun laws that can be secured strictly through executive action, administration officials say.
The Department of Justice held the first in what is expected to be a series of meetings on Tuesday afternoon with a group of stakeholders in the ongoing gun-policy debates. Before the meeting, officials said part of the discussion was expected to center around the White House’s options for shaping policy on its own or through its adjoining agencies and departments — on issues ranging from beefing up background checks to encouraging better data-sharing.
Do the stakeholders include folks standing up for gun rights? NRA has said they won’t meet since they have little to gain and it’s all about them giving up ground.
March 16th, 2011 at 9:45 am
I wish someone would tell that idiot that he was elected president, not king.
March 16th, 2011 at 9:58 am
“Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool.”
So said Paul Begalla.
This is what to expect during a 2d Obama term.
March 16th, 2011 at 10:02 am
The NRA should go to the meeting.
With a list of demands:
Repeal Lautenberg Amendment
National Constitutional Carry
Deregulate Suppressors
Deregulate SBRs
Repeal GCA ’86
Defund the ATF
March 16th, 2011 at 10:15 am
I dont see the NRA going after anything that isnt easy pickings, or trying to keep the ground they have now. its a lobbying organization, and they think they have to play the age old washington game.
March 16th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Look for this method of attack (and I do mean attack) to be used in other areas as well. This is exactly why the founding fathers originally gave such limited power to the presidency.
Also remember that its not just Obama to blame for this. Many other presidents that came before him laid the ground work by consolidating more and more power in the presidency over the years.
I weep for my country.
March 16th, 2011 at 10:44 am
Damn George Bush and his Imperial Executive overreach!
March 16th, 2011 at 11:34 am
QotD to Tam.
March 16th, 2011 at 11:50 am
It is sad indeed to see this country go the direction every third world democracy has gone. It did take us 250 or so years to screw the pooch beyond all belief.
Tam is getting her groove on.
March 16th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Actually, Tam, yes. Just because Obama is doing it now, doesn’t make what GWB did any better. He was the father of the DHS… gigantic overreach.
March 16th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Bryan S.,
Read what I actually wrote instead of what you think I wrote. Keep doing it until you achieve enlightenment, Grasshopper.
*GONG!*
March 16th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
I’m all for going in with a list of demands to make things simpler and better, starting with abolishing the BATFE and ending with National Open Carry. For the children!
March 16th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
I just wanna move to Grainne.
March 16th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Can you imagine the furore in the Press if Bush had tried this, say on abortion? The votes aren’t there, so quick gin up some regulations …
Interesting how the Usual Suspects in the Fourth Estate are quiet as churchmice on this.
March 16th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I wasnt trying to drag Bush into this… The Imperial Presidency started long before even his dad
March 16th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Thank goodness everything is calm overseas and our economy is cranking – so the Administration has free time to spend on gun issues.
March 16th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Good grief. It’s the Huffington Post for God’s sake. Why take it seriously. They are trying to put a positive spin on Obama’s statement that he wasn’t going to push for gun control legislation (probably because it wasn’t going to work).
March 16th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
He never respected the Conitution when he was running for President, why should he respect it now?
March 16th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
By “Conitution” I mean that thing that makes Joe Biden say all those wonderful and witty things!
March 16th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
I am with Ted N here. I just wish the place had more oxy in its atmosphere, or that I had quit smoking sooner.
Actually I think I might prefer Capella IV, aka New Texas.
March 16th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
I think that the “how much can we do through EO” question was answered in Heller — very little.
March 16th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
I think I’m just about ready to jump ship and move to Canada…ok, maybe more like Iceland
March 16th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Let Barry disarm his hired guns and lead by example.
The NRA should go with the demand, that whatever federal gun laws apply to the people, also apply to the President and all other government officials and agents according “to the equal protection of the laws” in the 14th Amendment, which along with the 13th, ended slavery. Surely Barry opposes slavery??
March 16th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Didn’t the Imperial presidency start in Camelot?
March 16th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Tam, Sorry, it smells of sarcasm, where many people sit there and go and imply that either 1. Everything can be blamed on GWB (as a play on the last presidential press coverage) or 2. Implying that things were so much better with GWB as president.
When I see that sort of comment on a firearms site, I have a hard time not seeing sarcasm.
Fair nuff? My bad.
March 16th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
How
about Ceres?
(Ookay, it’s just a pretty cool web-comic about a self-organizing wookietopian society in the asteroid belt in the future.)
March 16th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
I suppose NRA could go to Congress or the WH and demand these items (Repeal Lautenberg Amendment, National Constitutional Carry, Deregulate Suppressors, Deregulate SBRs, Repeal GCA ’86,
Defund the ATF), but none have them have a snowballs chance in hell of being enacted into law in this Congress. In fact, none of these items would have passed when the Repubs controlled the House/Senate and WH in 2006.
March 17th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Didn’t the Imperial presidency start in Camelot?
No. The first Roosevelt (TR – 1006 EO) really kicked it off but the second one (FDR – 3728 EO) might be accused of starting the “Imperial” presidency. See The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives and a chart.
Kennedy only issued 214 EO.