We support the Second Amendment right to bear arms. But President Barack Obama’s executive actions last week are just common sense.
His action affecting background checks at gun shows and online clarifies, rather than expands, federal law concerning gun sales. Simply put, if you're a gun dealer, you're a gun dealer. You follow the same law as everyone else. This is just closing a loophole.
It is often speculated that sales at gun shows, with no background checks, fuel the flow of guns to criminals.
Last October, Winston Geralds, 25, was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for helping to purchase 43 guns in Crown Point and Indianapolis and supplying them to sellers in Chicago. Geralds purchased the firearms from individual vendors at gun shows and helped bring them to Illinois in 2012 so they could be sold in Chicago's Greater Grand Crossing and Chinatown neighborhoods, officials said. Closing this loophole means Geralds, now a convicted felon will not be able to resume his operation when he is released from prison.
Obama's executive actions this week, which affect the Lake County Gun Show at the Lake County Fairgrounds, just makes sense. People who sell guns there will be regarded as dealers, and buyers will be subject to a background check.
There’s no reason to oppose this loophole. You’re a dealer if you’re selling at one of these shows and should be treated as one.
This doesn’t affect private sales between individuals. This is about buying from gun dealers.
Obama also is taking steps to include mental health records in the system used for background checks. That, too, makes sense. People who are mentally unstable ought not to be sold guns, for their own protection and for ours. This doesn't take away guns they might already own; it simply allows the purchase of additional guns to be restricted for people whose mental illness might lead to violent outbursts.
We have seen time and again the issue of mental illness pop up in the discussion of guns in the United States. It's a valid point. It's time to recognize the need to improve access to treatment of mental illness — the Obama administration is proposing an additional $500 million for mental health care — and for mental health records to be included in the background checks for individuals seeking to purchase guns.
Further, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives needs the financial and staffing wherewithal to function appropriately. The point is often made that we don't need more gun laws; we need to enforce the ones we have. The ATF needs the resources to enforce existing laws better. That means knowing when guns being shipped from one person to another go missing, or when people who shouldn't own guns acquire them.
This affects cities like Chicago, where violent street gangs have created high death tolls in recent years, but it also takes into account the pressure to reduce exposure to terrorists, both foreign and domestic, on U.S. soil.
Let's enforce the laws we have.
Reaction from Republican presidential candidates and from Congress was adamant against Obama's action this week.
The president has said he wants additional gun control. He voiced that opinion repeatedly this week. He also recognized he's not going to see that dream of his fulfilled during his term in office. Enacting new laws, or not, is up to Congress to decide.
Gun control is considered a third rail for politics. Even think about touching it, and you're easily zapped by fierce opponents or staunch proponents.
But let's set partisanship aside and see Obama's actions, rather than rhetoric, this week for what they are — clarification and enforcement of existing law. We support these commonsense moves and urge others to do so.