Obama, Biden are pushing more gun control

President Obama is poised to circumvent Congress and impose federal gun and ammunition restrictions as liberals seek more control over America’s gun ownership.

U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., said last week that he could not see the type of proposals put forth by Obama, Vice President Biden and other gun opponents, passing the U.S. House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans.

“What the President and the Executive branch are trying to do on gun control is absurd,” said U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. “The president’s use of executive orders to limit Second Amendment rights is only a tactic to bypass Congress and force untested laws onto the American people.

“Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is required to be the primary source of federal legislation, and I will fight to ensure that Congress does not abandon our responsibility to the American people by delegating our role in government to the executive branch, particularly regarding such an important issue as the Second Amendment.  I will continue to fight against the President’s agenda on gun control. As American citizens we have the Constitutional right to bear arms.”

Biden, who is chairing a committee on gun control, said last week that the Obama Administration could use executive orders to implement gun control measures.

“The president is going to act. Executive orders, executive action, can be taken,” Biden told reporters before meetings conducted on gun control.

Representatives from the National Rifle Association met with Biden and his committee and came away disappointed at the rush for more federal controls over rights spelled out in the Second Amendment.

“We attended today’s White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals,” the NRA said in a statement. “We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.

“While claiming that no policy proposals would be ‘prejudged,’ this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners – honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans.  It is unfortunate that this administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems.

“We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works – and what does not.”

Biden and his group are using the massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., to justify more federal gun laws, including perhaps registration of every firearm and banning of certain weapons.

In response to Obama and Biden, the NRA membership rolls have grown by 100,000 since the December Newtown shooting. In Connecticut, a lone gunman armed with a semi-automatic weapon shot and killed 26 people, including 20 young children.

Since then, the NRA’s membership increased from 4.1 million to 4.2 million. And gun and ammunition sales in the United State have skyrocketed as Americans anticipate Obama’s push to take guns . In fact, the NRA has been averaging 8,000 new members a day – the highest response to a shooting ever.

Former GOP Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee blasted the Obama White House Biden’s suggestion that executive orders might be used to curb gun violence.

“Does this administration have nothing but contempt for the Constitution and the Congress?” he asked. “How can an ‘executive order’ trump not only the actual text of the Constitution, but the checks and balances of power in which no branch could act unilaterally and with indifference to the other branches?

“When Joe Biden and Barack Obama give up the vast amount of guns that protect them, then the rest of us will consider giving up the guns that protect our homes and our families,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee’s radio show can be hear in Tulsa on weekdays from 4-6 p.m. on KCFO AM970.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh  has echoed the same concerns.

“When a bunch of liberals get together and start talking about guns -  and include the possibility of executive orders, executive action that can be taken  -  what are they talking about?” Limbaugh asked. “Not involving Congress, but they’re talking about taking guns away.

“What are they talking about here? Executive action to do what? Shore up the Second Amendment? I hardly think so.

“What could a bunch of liberal Democrats worried about guns, talking about using executive orders do? What could it possibly be about? A gun grab. So make no mistake: They are planning a gun grab.”

Larry Pratt, executive director of the Gun Owners of America, disagreed with the idea that firearms should be banned from schools and other gun-free zones. Pratt has said that responsible gun owners might have been able to stop or limit some of the carnage from such mass shootings.

“We’re not talking about making it so people can defend themselves properly in these gun-free zones that have been the scene of some our worst mass murders over the last 20 years,” Pratt, a former GOP member of the Virginia House of Delegates, told CNN. “If you’re keeping the same policy, year after year, and getting the same deadly results, you’re going to get the same deadly results the next time.

“We want to encourage people who are qualified to carry a concealed firearm in a school zone to be able to do so.”

Biden wants to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons that expired in 2004 and to force every gun buyer – even from private individuals at gun shows – to have a mandatory background check. Plus, he wants to limit use of high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Other proposals on gun control include:

• Making gun running a felony

• Ordering the Justice Department to prosecute anyone who lies on a background check form

• Ordering all federal agencies to share date on the  National Gun Background Check Database.

• Background checks for the purchase of ammunition