President Obama is quietly moving forward on gun control.
The
president has used his executive powers to bolster the national
background check system, jumpstart government research on the causes of
gun violence and create a million-dollar ad campaign aimed at safe gun
ownership.
The executive steps will give federal law enforcement officials access
to more data about guns and their owners, help keep guns out of the
hands of criminals and the mentally ill, and lay the groundwork for
future legislative efforts.
It is unclear whether the National
Rifle Association (NRA) will challenge any of the executive actions in
court. A spokesman for the NRA did not return a request for comment.
The moves, which have not been widely touted by the administration, come
as Obama ups his pressure on Congress to take action on gun control in
the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. The Senate is
expected to begin floor consideration of legislation when it returns in
April.
Efforts to renew a ban in semi-automatic weapons with military-style
features and high-capacity magazines have stalled in Congress.
Democratic senators still hope to move gun control legislation that
includes tougher background checks, but conservative Republican senators
have threatened to filibuster it.
If approved by the Senate, any bill would then face tough sledding in the GOP-controlled House.
Gun control groups say Obama’s piecemeal approach falls short of what
could be accomplished by legislation overhauling the nation’s gun laws.
Still, they argue the actions remain important and will reduce gun
violence.
“They’ve taken direct aim at some of the bigger problems
in the regulatory part of the issue and they’re doing it in the right
way and that’s going to be very helpful,” said Mark Glaze, the director
of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns group.
“Ultimately
you need to close the loopholes in the law that will continue to
undermine enforcement, but what they’re doing is precisely right.”
They also illustrate the administration’s power to change gun laws
despite inaction on Capitol Hill, a practice the president may need to
duplicate in other policy areas amid congressional gridlock.
Obama’s steps began the same day he unveiled his 23 gun control
proposals in January, when he issued a memorandum requiring all nine
federal law enforcement agencies to submit guns they confiscate to the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing.
According to a notice sent by Attorney General Eric Holder last month,
the agencies will have to submit a report to the Justice Department
(DOJ) within the next month showing they are compliant.
The move, and several more like it, is aimed at strengthening the
quality and quantity of records contained within the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System (NICS), according to a DOJ spokeswoman.
For years, federal law enforcement officials and gun control advocates
have complained that the NICS gun records are not complete, making it
easier for people with criminal records and mental illnesses to buy
guns.
A key factor in strengthening the NICS database, they say, is getting
states to report more information on mental health and criminal history
records.
Earlier this month, the DOJ announced a $20 million grant program aimed
at incentivizing states to submit more mental health and criminal
history information into the NICS database.
Also this month, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it
would consider changing rules to make it easier for states to share
mental health records with the NICS.
Through these moves, Glaze
said the administration has addressed two of the main reasons for
incomplete trace data: a lack of money and privacy concerns.
“By
taking direct aim at the two biggest problems inhibiting the database,
they are taking a significant chunk out of 50 percent of the system’s
weaknesses,” said Glaze.
In January, Obama directed the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to begin studying the causes of gun violence for the
first time since Congress, at the behest of the NRA, began blocking
funding for such research in 1996.
The CDC has since awarded a contract to the Institute of Medicine (IOM),
which this spring will soon begin looking at the role video games and
social media play in gun violence, as well as whether gun technologies
and access to guns can be used to reduce violence.
The aim is
to affect future legislation by giving lawmakers empirical data on an
area that has been largely bereft for nearly two decades. Without
government research, gun control advocates say they are forced to rely
on private studies, which do not hold the same clout on Capitol Hill.
“You
can’t make good policy without good data, and for a generation the NRA
has been throwing dirt in the eyes of Congress so they can’t actually
see what’s going on around them," said Glaze.
As part of the agency’s preliminary research, the CDC and IOM will host an all-day conference
on April 23 in
Washington, D.C., to hear from firearm and gun violence experts;
researchers; and advocates on both sides of the issue, according to
Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist who now leads the Independent
Firearm Owners Association.
Feldman said he questions whether the CDC can lawfully spend money on
studies that Congress has barred, but he plans to attend and noted that
the NRA’s former research director, Paul Blackman, has been invited to
the event as well.
In another administrative move, Obama directed the Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC) to examine the efficacy of existing gun trigger
locks and firearm safe standards to determine if they need to be
improved. The CPSC has partnered with the American Society for Testing
and Materials International, but does not have a firm timeline for when
its examination will be finished, according to a spokesman.
Separately, the administration has given $1 million to the National
Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to create, produce and distribute a
nationwide multimedia ad campaign on safe gun ownership and storage. The
campaign is heading into the research phase and is expected to air by
the early fall, according to a NCPC spokeswoman.
And regional offices with the General Services Administration have begun
to reach out to local schools, advising them about the agency’s
“Cooperative Purchasing” program, which gives discounted rates to
schools on security equipment including: surveillance cameras, emergency
communication systems, security design and support, and employee
background check systems.
