“President Obama will begin his final review of new executive actions on gun control within ‘weeks, not months, a senior aide said,” thehill.com reports. “White House communications director Jen Psaki said at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg News that the administration is weighing a ‘range of steps that can be taken as it relates to the people who have access to guns’ and ‘how people gain access to guns.'” Note: people. Not criminals, crazies and terrorists. In the meantime, salivation/speculation’s running rampant. thehill.com reckons . . .
Obama is reportedly considering one measure that would classify more gun sellers as high-volume dealers, which would close a legal loophole that allows many sales conducted online or at gun shows to skirt existing background check provisions.
But such a measure would surely prompt a legal challenge from Republicans and groups like the NRA, who argue Obama does not have the legal authority to take such a broad step on his own.
The Department of Justice is reportedly crafting recommendations on how the president could issue new actions that can survive a lawsuit.
Psaki declined say which action the president is leaning toward taking.
“I’m not going to take anything on or off the table” she said of potential policies, including closing the gun show loophole and banning people on the government’s no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
Just how the President could “close the gun show loophole” or create a federal ban on gun purchase and ownership for Americans on the government’s secret “Terrorist Watchlist” without running afoul of the United States Constitution is anyone’s guess. The best guess: he can’t. The question is, will he? Watch this space.