Can Obama pass gun control limits by 'executive order' - as long as public backs it?

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
1/11/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

President is acutely aware of public opinion and could pass edicts if they're popular with voters

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to weigh in on some theoretical gun laws in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Connecticut. Vice President is expected to present findings to Obama from a gun panel this coming week. Since the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans, any new gun laws will have a hard chance of winning approval. In response, the president may pass the laws by "Executive order" - a very unpopular move, unless Obama follows popular opinion.

Since Obama is perceived as the 'people's president,' the president may just scour opinion polls to pick what the majority of Americans think on the issue, insuring his approval by the electorate.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Executive order, where the president can override the legislative process is seen by many as "totalitarian." Since Obama is perceived as the "people's president," the president may just scour opinion polls to pick what the majority of Americans think on the issue, insuring his approval by the electorate.

Among likely paths the president will pursue --

-- is ending the "gun show loophole." People who buy guns at a gun show or through private sales and online shopping will need to have a background check. According to a Gallup poll, 92 percent of Americans favor this position.

-- He will also try to ban high-capacity ammunition clips that contain more than 10 bullets: CNN/ORC, Gallup, Pew, PPP, and YouGov all show at least 53 percent of Americans in favor of this policy.

- Obama will also find ways to make sure that people with poor mental health records do not get a gun. CNN/ORC polls found that 92 percent Americans did not want Americans with mental health problems to be in possession of a gun. PPP took it even further and discovered that 63 percent of Americans want people to be required to take a health exam before buying a gun.

- The president will also try to prevent felons convicted of a violent crime from owning a gun. Ninety-four percent and 92 percent approve of that measure, per PPP and CNN/ORC respectively.

- The president should also try to make sure that guns, even if not recently purchased, would be registered with a government or law enforcement agency.

- In addition, Pew found that 56 percent favor a ban on bullets that explode or are designed to break through a bullet-proof vest.

- Obama should try to make it more difficult to buy ammunition and/or guns over the internet: 69 percent of Americans wanted to ban these practices, according to PPP.

The most vocal proponent of Second Amendment rights, the National Rifle Association, or NRA, the one organization that could rally public opinion against such measures, has suffered a drubbing in public opinions since the sandy Hook shootings. According to Public Policy Polling, only 42 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the NRA, down from 48 percent a scant few weeks ago.

� 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: President Obama, gun control, executive order, limitation, gun shows, Sandy Hook Elementary School

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1 - 10 of 11 Comments

KarlVDH
4 months ago
Jerry... it's a done thing, with no challenge. You're quite incorrect. There's not a thing unconstitutional about it.
Jerry N
4 months ago
Karl, as usual, you are quick to claim something is wrong with what I did not write.

It is you who are in error. I wrote that it is unconstitutional for Obama to create laws using executive orders which is exactly correct. I wrote nothing about the use of executive orders in general. Are you unable to read with comprehension or are you intentionally being deceitful? Yours appears to be a poorly disguised attempt to set up and knock down some phony straw man and then wrongly alter my words into your own work of false witness.

Yours is a familiar tactic that Obama uses frequently, and he has shown it to be quite effective on people who possess little factual information or cognitive ability.
KarlVDH
4 months ago
Vance, your issue is with your President and the Supreme Court, not with me. Agree with it or don't; the clauses I mentioned are the precedent by which Obama (and other Presidents have) issued executive orders. If you think I'm wrong, where's the howling GOP challenge?
vance
4 months ago
KarlVDH, sorry, you're wrong again. Your Dear Marxist Leader can only use executive order to enforce "Existing Laws" NOT make new laws. Yes, Jerry N is spot on.
KarlVDH
4 months ago
Sorry, Jerry, but according to Article II, section 1, clause 1 and Article II, section 5 of the US Constitution, an Executive Order is neither unconstitutional nor illegal.
Jerry N
4 months ago
"In response, the president may pass the laws by "Executive order" - a very unpopular move..."

Not only unpopular, but illegal and unconstitutional in the extreme. According to our Constitution the President may not "pass the laws" of any type. If he tries it, he should immediately be impeached and removed from office. It is the President's job to enforce existing laws, not "pass" new ones by executive decree.

Like Pres Obama, the author of this drivel is a transparent left-wing, radical political hack who obviously favors a tyrannical dictatorship over the representative republican form of government established by the US Constitution.
wayne b
4 months ago
Every time a nation has allowed itself to be disarmed, it has fallen to tyranny and suffered mass murders. With the current administration's penchant for disregarding our Constitution and God given rights, we should not trust them when they claim they have our best interests in anything they do. I disagree that they have not communicated, there has been a steady flow of propaganda and indoctrination for decades against religion and independence. Recently it has been much more focused against Christians and our Constitution. We should pray that our Country wakes up and recognizes the certain path to tyranny we are on now. The violations of our rights and refusals to follow the laws of our country that our Government is spearheading should be stopped. Only by reversing the slide toward being governed by tyranny can we save our Nation. Only by rejecting that Government is the supreme power can we do so. And only by following God's will can we accomplish that.
Emma
4 months ago
"Totalitarianism didn't come quickly, had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The state, little by little, eroded our freedom. " Kitty Wertham (Austrian under Hitler's rule)
vance
4 months ago
Grim, you're exactly right. The 2nd Amendment was meant for the right of citizens to bare arms to defend themselves against lawless thugs and government thugs like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Obama and the Marxist Democrat Party. The 2nd Amendment isn't there to hunt ducks. Your guy in the White House already demonstrated that he has no respect for the Constitution of the United States of America.
Emma
4 months ago
More "feel good " measures!! Let's not do the real work. Let's grab at the first quick fix that the public will accept. How are they going to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill when there are no mental health services available? Most felons already are barred from owning weapons as a condition of their parole. Guns can be modified after they're purchased and who do they think that has an unregistered gun is going to come forward with it? Are they planning on doing a sweep of everyone 's home to check for guns? Yeah, that's gonna work. Where are they getting the personnel from to do this? If we had services that have been cut in the last four years back in place, that might help. M -13 must be laughing their arses off! If only they would have turned to people who actually work with felons in prison ministries or even some who have been rehabilitated and are now working to lift others out of "situations " instead of once again making a political circus out of it. Such a disgrace to see so many taking advantage of the deaths of those children! All the spin doctors are working overtime. These suggestions are a joke and a waste of resources, but hey, if it makes people feel good that's all that matters. Let's not do any real work. Let's not implement any valid solution. Why? Because to do so takes time and it takes communication and they've already demonstrated that they don't want to communicate. The emperor, once again, has no clothes.

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