V. P. Biden pledges more executive action on guns from Obama “later this week," White House corrects

by Chad D. Baus

We the People have spoken through our representatives in Congress. We do not want law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights curbed in the name of "doing something" about the horrific attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We do not want our legislators to pass things that feel good but that will do nothing to prevent these types of mass killings.

Unfortunately, Vice President Joe Biden is telling "stakeholders" that the President is preparing to use executive actions to act unilaterally and against the will of the American people as clearly expressed through their elected legislators.

From BuzzFeed.com:

Vice President Biden told White House allies in the gun control fight Thursday that President Obama will be announcing new executive actions on gun violence in the days after the Senate voted down a gun violence bill.

On a conference call with "stakeholders," Biden told gun control advocates that the fight is not over and that eventual action on gun control will come. Press were not invited to the conference call; a participant provided BuzzFeed with access.

"Look, I know you're going to say that I'm just being an optimist and I'm trying to put a good face on this. But, you know, I've been around here a long time and we've already done, because of you, some really good things," Biden said. "Number one, the president is already lining up some additional executive actions he's going to be taking later this week."

The article goes on to note that, after the Newtown shootings, Obama took a number of executive actions to expand research into gun violence and other areas favored by the gun control community. He took the actions without congressional approval, leading to outrage by some conservatives and gun rights advocates.

Biden said the White House is looking at ways to increase the number of people denied the right to buy a firearm under the current background check system.

"We also are reviewing the list of prohibited purchasers to maybe expand that list of prohibited purchasers," he said.

Biden lamented Wednesday's Senate vote on the call but said it had taken him multiple attempts to pass the Brady Bill in the 1990s. He said that in the long run, supporters of gun control will win out over the NRA and its allies.

Given that Biden made the comments on Thursday, some observers immediately noted that there was very little time left in the week for Obama to act. And in an update to the article published late yesterday, BuzzFeed reported that a White House official had contacted them to explain the "additional executive actions" Biden was referring to on the call are part of Obama's original list of 23 executive actions on guns announced in January - ones in which Obama basically encouraged various people in his administration to do the job they were already supposed to be doing. (An excellent summary of those actions, translated from the formal bureaucratese, can be found here.)

I would personally like to thank President Obama for putting Joe Biden in charge of efforts to take political advantage of the Sandy Hook massacre to pass gun control. His ineptitude has been very helpful.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.