This describes today’s gun control ‘announcement’ pretty well, I think:
Long story short: Obama's plan to close the alleged gun show loophole isn't to close it. It's just to tell people it's kinda sorta closed.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 5, 2016
…and at that it’s a bit more sensible than I frankly expected from the President, honestly. I wonder if he’s feeling well? Or maybe some of his staffers – the ones who will need to find jobs next year – talked him down…
I’ve seen it proposed, and find it quite plausible, that he simply has no idea what the current laws are, and neither do most/any of his handlers. He’s not chickening out; he’s taking a sledgehammer to the straw man he thinks is real.
I’ll go a half-micron closer and posit that, as gun shows are potentially regulated by federal, state, county/parish, and municipal laws (not to mention tribal, if the gun show happens to be in a casino hall on First Nation land…) it’s borderline-reasonable to expect the White House to *not* be able to postulate an EO that isn’t a mess in some way ..
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Then, of course, I’ll point out that Dems need to get elected come 2016 ..
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So .. yeah, I suspect the aides kept pointing out “but that will weaken laws in Connecticut” until The Won gave up and declared victory.
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Mew
I disagree that this EO is weak sauce, like everything that Obama does, you must watch what the other hand is doing. This gives prosecutors wide ranging powers to interpret the EO. For example, as I understand it, a gun owner will not be able to sell or trade-in a single legal, registered weapon to a licensed dealer,which is a very common practise, without a FFL.
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Make no mistake, prosecutors and their media running dogs will go after and make examples of law abiding gun owners to instill fear into the populace in an attempt to slow gun purchases. Of course, it will not work as owners will hunker down and simply not sell or trade, and doesn’t address the actual threat of terrorism, random violence or illegal guns, but it will serve the Left’s purposes of further undermining the 2nd Amendment.