re: Obama to Executive Order gun control in a few days ...

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Posted: Sunday, December 27, 2015 12:30 am

By Kery Murakami CNHI Washington Reporter

WASHINGTON — Gun control advocates want President Barack Obama to tighten rules for background checks on firearms purchases, which they argue give criminals easy access to weapons.

But if Obama acts in the coming weeks, as expected by those on both sides of the gun debate, gun-rights supporters are already poised to sue.

“What we’re expecting is for Obama to try doing something illegal,” said Michael Hammonds, legal counsel for the Gun Owners of America. “I don’t think he cares any more if what he does is legal.”

Federal law now exempts gun-sellers from conducting background checks on buyers if a seller only deals “occasionally” and is not “engaged in the business” of selling guns.

Critics say those terms are so vague that they have allowed for the purchase of hundreds of guns — particularly at gun shows and online — by criminals including those with histories of domestic abuse.
Jonas Oransky, legal counsel for Everytown for Gun Safety, acknowledged during an interview that Obama cannot eliminate the exemption without a vote of Congress.

But the administration has the discretion to define the terms of the law.

In anticipation of a move by Obama in the next few weeks, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, introduced legislation on Monday that voids any presidential order that infringes on the Second Amendment or Congress’ powers. His bill would qualify any such order as advisory unless enacted by lawmakers.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, criticized Obama for issuing executive orders when he cannot win over Congress.

“We have seen that these unilateral actions do not hold up in court,” he said. “Instead of focusing on preventing more terrorist attacks, Obama and his administration are working to make it harder for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights through policies that would not have stopped any of the recent mass shootings.”

The White House has not revealed Obama’s plans, but senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said at a vigil commemorating the three-year anniversary of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that the president has urged aides to submit a plan to him “in short order.”

Twenty-four Democratic senators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote Obama on Nov. 23, urging him to address the “loophole that allows guns to be sold without a background check by eliminating the ambiguity surrounding the term ‘engaged in business.’”

They sent the letter nearly two months after an Oregon college student shot and killed eight classmates and a teacher. He reportedly bought his guns legally.
Days later, a gunman opened fire on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

In a recent report, Everytown for Gun Safety said ambiguity over the exemptions is keeping prosecutors from winning - or even initiating - cases involving illegal gun sales.

The Nov. 12 report found convictions in only 30 percent of cases where defendants were accused of not doing background checks despite being “engaged in the business” of selling firearms.

Juries acquitted defendants in half the cases that went to trial.

In 2011, for instance, a jury in Florida acquitted a man accused of selling more than 400 guns between 2006 and 2010 at as many as 25 gun shows a year, and making as much as $50,000 in a year, the report found.

It quoted his attorney as saying, “You know, it would be easy if we had a law that says you can sell 50 firearms in a year, or 10 firearms or 100, but that’s not what it is.”

Everytown for Gun Safety wants Obama’s order to clarify that a person is not an “occasional seller” if they sell more than 25 guns in a year. It says factors like whether sellers deal unused guns or guns in their original packaging - or if they resell firearms shortly after acquiring them - also should be considered.
Such an action would stand up in court, Oransky said. Statements made by members of Congress show the exemptions to background checks created in the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act never meant to cover those selling multiple guns.

But Hammonds said even a 25-gun limit restricts those just trying to sell their collections.

“Gun groups claim there’s a loophole, whenever gun rights exist,” he said.

He called a move by Obama to narrow the exemption a legal “Hail Mary” by a president frustrated at not being able to push tougher gun laws through Congress.

Representatives of the National Rifle Association did not return calls and emails for comment.

However, Doug DuBois Jr., executive director of the Texas State Rifle Association, said in a statement: “The executive order has not been explained and it is speculation at this time as to what would be impacted.”

Still, gun-rights groups are focused on the issue, even taking out ads on taxicabs in Washington.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said Obama is using recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, as “yet another excuse to attack the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding United States citizens.”
Blunt co-sponsored a bill proposed by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would improve access to mental health services and improve state reporting of mental health issues to the national background check database.

Citing his “firm” support for gun rights, Blunt said reforming those services can “get to the root cause of many recent incidents” without expanding background checks.

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