By Greg Campbell
TPNN Contributor
Yesterday, President Obama conducted what is sure to be his last press conference of this presidential term. If his last press conference can serve as any kind of preview for what his next term will entail, we can safely assume that the next four years will see an expansion of the executive branch’s powers.
In addition to the potential power-grab from the chief executive over the debt ceiling, what has been alarming to many Americans is the president and vice president’s candid statements that they view it as an option to issue executive orders to procure gun control measures not approved by Congress.
At his press conference, Obama stated that Vice President Biden had submitted potential ideas of what actions could be taken to curb “gun violence”- which could include gun bans, national registry of firearms, magazine bans and a multitude of other measures not approved by Congress.
“Well, my understanding is, the vice president’s going to provide a range of steps that we can take to reduce gun violence. Some of them will require legislation; some of them I can accomplish through executive action. And so I’ll be reviewing those today, and as I said, I’ll speak in more detail to what we’re going to go ahead and propose later in the week.
But I’m confident that there are some steps that we can take that don’t require legislation and that are within my authority as president. And where you get a step that has the opportunity to reduce the possibility of gun violence, then I want to go ahead and take it…
I think that we’ve seen for some time now that those who oppose any common-sense gun control or gun safety measures have a pretty effective way of ginning up fear on the part of gun owners that somehow the federal government’s about to take all your guns away. And you know, that — there’s probably an economic element to that. It obviously is good for business.
But I think that, you know, those of us who look at this problem have repeatedly said that responsible gun owners, people who have a gun for protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship — they don’t have anything to worry about. The issue here is not whether or not we believe in the Second Amendment.”
Americans are purchasing guns at an astounding, record-breaking level in anticipation of not only the threat of a gun ban, but the threat of an executive order gun ban that could occur any day. In 18 days, following the first discussions of a possible gun ban, the NRA saw over 100,000 new memberships. Despite the overwhelming evidence that Americans wish to maintain their Second Amendment rights, President Obama is still citing “common-sense” gun measures that he asserts are perfectly reasonable restrictions.
While many Americans do not agree with the steps President Obama may be considering, celebrities like CNN’s Piers Morgan have been very vocal about their desire to see radical steps taken to restrict firearm ownership. Morgan has had several high-profile gun rights advocates on his show in recent weeks and tonight, fellow TPNN contributor Scottie Nell Hughes will be on the program to discuss gun rights in America and the potential overreaching by the president on Second Amendment issues.
With the second Obama term having not even yet commenced, it is unlikely that this will be the last we have heard about the use of executive powers to enforce his agenda.
