To no one’s surprise, the reaction by the gun lobby and its lackeys in Congress to President Barack Obama’s sensible and modest gun control proposal was universal condemnation. Led by the gaggle of Republican presidential candidates, the critics trotted out the discredited fears of gun confiscation and executive overreach. Many, like North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, read from the no-thinking-allowed playbook, saying: “What the president ought to do is commit himself and his administration to enforcing existing laws rather than burdening law-abiding citizens with further regulation.”
Guess what? That is precisely what the president’s executive action aims to do. It does not promulgate new laws. It does not by any stretch of the overheated imaginations of the gun lobby’s minions seek confiscation. It does not prevent law-abiding citizens from owning and selling legal firearms.
It does, however, partially close gun sales loopholes that have been the sources of firearms that get into the hands of people who should not have guns. It does call for more thorough, more universal background checks of potential gun buyers – a provision that enjoys overwhelming support among Americans, including gun owners and conservative Republicans. It does seek more federal agents and resources to enforce existing laws, an aim that has been blocked repeatedly in Congress by the NRA and other like-minded organizations.
In effect, the president is doing what Congress says should be done, but has no intention of doing. When Cramer, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and others in Congress accuse the president of “overreach,” the argument falls flat because they and their colleagues haven’t reached at all to address the national shame of gun violence. That quick-step hypocrisy is shared by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who has wrapped herself in the phony blanket of characterizing the gun problem as a mental health issue, when she knows it’s far more than that.
By itself, the president’s initiative won’t stem the tide of gun violence. But even modest steps in the right direction are significant because the gun lobby has appropriated the people’s representatives. As a result, the president has decided to enforce existing laws and invigorate existing regulations so they work as intended. He should be applauded.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
