Obama firing off more executive orders
Obama firing off more executive orders
President, Feinstein reignite gun-control fight after Navy Yard shooting
In the wake of the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, President Obama plans to implement more executive orders and reiterated his commitment to strengthening gun laws, including expanding background checks to sales online and at gun shows, CBS reported Tuesday.
“The president supports, as do an overwhelming majority of Americans, common-sense measures to reduce gun violence,” spokesman Jay Carney said
Obama has been powerless to get legislation passed despite a string of mass shootings during his presidency.
Only hours after a dozen people were gunned down at the Navy facility, and while police still were treating the scene as a crime investigation site Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., issued a statement calling for more gun controls from Congress.
It said, in part:
“This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons – including a military-style assault rifle – and kill many people in a short amount of time.
“When will enough be enough?
“Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country. We must do more to stop this endless loss of life.”
Phillip Dennis of the Dallas Tea Party was not surprised at the almost immediate calls for congressional action.
“The left never lets a crisis go to waste,” Dennis told WND. “They capitalize on a grief-stricken American populace to advance their statist agenda. This is a time for mourning and healing, not emotion-based, knee-jerk legislating in response to a tragedy.”
Shortly after the Newtown school shooting massacre, President Obama unveiled 23 executive actions he planned to take in response. At the end of August, the president released a statement touting his progress on 22 of those recommendations and affirmed that he would use the power of the executive branch to push for more regulation of gun ownership since Congress has not acted.
The statement declared, “Even as Congress fails to act on common-sense proposals, like expanding criminal background checks and making gun trafficking a federal crime, the president and vice president remain committed to using all the tools in their power to make progress toward reducing gun violence.”
Dennis hopes, in a way, that more Democrats in Washington D.C. will push for gun control.
“The recent recalls in Colorado show that Americans are still supportive of the Second Amendment and are willing to throw politicians out who wish to infringe on that right.”
In that state, voters formally removed from office two lawmakers, including the Senate president, who pursued additional gun control laws during last winter’s legislature. They replaced the ejected Democrats with members of the GOP.
Dennis believes the upcoming congressional midterm elections in 2014 will deter Congress from acting, but the president has no incentive except the threat of impeachment to keep him from using executive action to accomplish his agenda.
“It is time to start impeachment proceedings against the president. He has more than enough impeachable offenses under his belt to warrant his removal from office.”
WND has been documenting the calls for Obama’s impeachment. The latest tally of members of Congress talking about impeachment is 15 strong.
Clinical Psychologist Dr. Dathan Paterno was not dismissive of the latest push for increased regulation of firearm ownership.
“Firearm regulation is slowly and quietly being turned over to the mental health ‘professionals,’” Paterno told WND. “Congress doesn’t have to pass more laws to restrict gun ownership. The laws are already on the books. If more people can be classified as mentally unstable and unable to own a firearm, fewer people will be able to legally own guns. This can be done without the passage of a single law.”
The guidelines that doctors use to diagnose psychiatric disorders were updated in May of this year and WND reported that half of all Americans could be considered mentally ill under these new guidelines.
“Don’t be fooled by a lack of bills being sent through Congress,” Paterno said. “Dianne Feinstein will be successful in restricting gun ownership whether she passes legislation or not. Obama’s executive orders paired with the new psychiatric guidelines are all that is needed to take firearms from the hands of Americans.”
Feinstein was a key player in Obama’s failed attempt to ram additional gun laws through Congress earlier this year.
She had sponsored the 1994 assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Her history on gun control has been strident as well as contradictory. She once championed her private firearm ownership the same year she called for banning “all” firearm ownership.
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WND reported at a U.S. Senate hearing on terrorism after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing she acknowledged she carried a concealed weapon to protect herself after two assassination attempts by the New World Liberation Front, the NWLF.
She explained: “I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that’s what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out, I was going to take them with me.”
However, WND also reported, in an interview with “60 Minutes” the same year, she said: “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States, for an outright ban, picking up every one of them. Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ‘em all in, I would have done it.