Why not go down this checklist, and decide which of the following measures you agree with. They come from President Obama's Jan. 5 speech on gun violence. These are the things he wants to see happen.
1. Anybody in the business of selling firearms must get a license and conduct background checks, or be subject to criminal prosecutions. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing it over the Internet or at a gun show.
2. We’re also expanding background checks to cover violent criminals who try to buy some of the most dangerous firearms by hiding behind trusts and corporations and various cutouts.
3. We're also taking steps to make the background check system more efficient. . . . We’re going to hire more folks to process applications faster, and we’re going to bring an outdated background check system into the 21st century.
4. We're going to add 200 more ATF agents and investigators.
5. We're going to require firearms dealers to report more lost or stolen guns on a timely basis.
6. We're working with advocates to protect victims of domestic abuse from gun violence, where too often, people are not getting the protection that they need.
7. We're going to do more to help those suffering from mental illness get the help that they need. . . . Nearly two in three gun deaths are from suicides. So a lot of our work is to prevent people from hurting themselves.
8. Obamacare . . . that law made sure that treatment for mental health was covered the same as treatment for any other illness.
9. Mental health . . . We’re going to invest $500 million to expand access to treatment across the country.
10. We’re going to ensure that federal mental health records are submitted to the background check system.
11. We're going to . . . remove barriers that prevent states from reporting relevant information.
12. We’re going to boost gun safety technology. . . . We’re going to work with the private sector to update firearms technology.
13. If we can set it up so you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do the same thing for our guns?
14. If there’s an app that can help us find a missing tablet . . . if we can do it for your iPad, there’s no reason we can’t do it with a stolen gun.
15. If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin, we should make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun.
16. Some gun retailers are already stepping up by refusing to finalize a purchase without a complete background check, or by refraining from selling semi-automatic weapons or high-capacity magazines.
17. So all of us need to demand a Congress brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby’s lies. . . . All of us need to demand governors and legislatures and businesses do their part to make our communities safer.
18. We need the wide majority of responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time this happens and feel like your views are not being properly represented to join with us to demand something better.
19. We need voters who want safer gun laws, and who are disappointed in leaders who stand in their way, to remember come election time.
20. The gun lobby is loud and it is organized in defense of making it effortless for guns to be available for anybody, any time. Well, you know what, the rest of us, we all have to be just as passionate. We have to be just as organized in defense of our kids.
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