A report indicates that President Obama will celebrate the Christmas season by circumventing Congress via executive gun control.
On November 12, CBS News reported that Obama had a team of “White House lawyers” looking for ways such actions could survive the lawsuits and Congressional scrutiny that is certain to follow any attempt to institute gun control via executive fiat. The specific actions in view have not been revealed, but in mid-December Breitbart News reported that Obama and gun control proponent Michael Bloomberg met to discuss possible ways to circumvent Congress for more gun control.
Bloomberg has been pushing Obama to use executive action to expand background checks to cover private gun owners who sell guns to other private gun owners, which Americans have been doing since 1791. Others have been pushing Obama to expand background checks to cover all sales at gun shows.
On December 18, White House communications director Jen Psaki said Obama’s execution action on guns would come in “weeks not months.” And Roll Call is now reporting that “senior congressional aides and sources in the gun-control community” indicate Obama will issue his executive actions after returning from Christmas vacation.
Roll Call quoted White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitting that Obama’s team of lawyers have been “scrubbing through the law” to find those viable avenues for gun control expansion. An anonymous source with insight into deliberations behind the scenes told Roll Call that they expect Obama “to better define what it means to be ‘in the business’ of selling firearms.” By so doing, Obama will be able to subtly expand background checks to cover a larger chunk of private gun sales.
On December 21, Senator Rand Paul introduced legislation to block Obama’s attempts to use executive action to expand gun control. The Hill reports that Paul’s legislation would limit executive action on guns to “advisory only” and require that the actions survive a Congressional vote before being allowed to take effect.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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