President Obama unveiling plans to curb gun violence

It's always sad to me when our government is reactive as oppose to being proactive in responding to the issues plaguing the country. But, what can you do? They are trying to crackdown on gun laws these days in the wake up recent events. Yahoo! News reports:

Invoking the painful memory of the schoolchildren killed in Newtown, Conn., a month ago, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced the most ambitious gun-control drive in generations. Proposals include universal background checks as well as bans on assault weapons and ammunition clips that hold more than 10 bullets. Some of his proposals are sure to run headlong into fierce opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, as well as the powerful NRA lobby.

"I will put everything I’ve got into this,” Obama, standing alongside Vice President Joe Biden, promised an audience that included relatives of the first-graders slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, survivors of other mass shootings and elected officials.

"While there is no law, or set of laws, that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil, if there’s even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try," Obama said in his speech. "And I’m going to do my part."

The president declared himself a firm believer in the Second Amendment and denounced those who will cast his "common-sense" approach as "a tyrannical, all-out assault on liberty." He also warned those inclined to support his strategy that passage "will be difficult."

“This will not happen unless the American people demand it. If parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsmen, if responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, ‘Enough, we’ve suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue,' then change will come," he said. "That’s what it’s going to take."

Bowing to political reality, Obama’s proposals included a wave of 23 executive actions that circumvent Congress, where most Republicans and a few Democrats have balked at sweeping new restrictions they say could trample constitutional gun rights. The potent National Rifle Association lobby has also pledged to defeat new gun control measures.

The executive actions include requiring federal agencies to report more information to the federal background check system and directing the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence. But Obama acknowledged that his more ambitious proposals would have to clear Congress.

Biden, in his introductory remarks, said, "I have no illusions about what we're up against." But "the world has changed, and it's demanding action."

For the full story please visit: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-unveils-sweeping-plan-battle-gun-violence-165956859--politics.html