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President Barack Obama preparing to issue Executive Order on gun control

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Feels like a political power play. Fire up the crazies and tea party base to increase support for the more radical elements of the republican party, marginally affecting the republican primary process.
 
The spike in gun purchases over the next few days will be absolutely insane. Anything he does enact as an executive order will do next to nothing to stop gun violence though. America will always have mass shootings. Even if they put a 100% ban on all guns it's impossible to enforce and with the amount of guns already out in the population there's always going to be a way to get one illegally.

If the options are

-do something and hope that it could turn out well even if it wont and
-do nothing, put your fingers into your ears and go lalalalalala while things continue as they are

then i'll always go with the former over the latter. The later doesn't do anyone any good.
 

Halcyon

Member
Isn't the "gun show loophole" just the fact that people tend to have make private transactions at these outside of the gunshow when they're not licensed dealers. But people can make private transactions without a background check any place. You can sell your neighbor a gun, or you brother, or whatever without doing a background check (in most states)
 
I really don't understand why even idiots who are pro gun want sales to be unregulated, it's almost as if they want dodgy criminals and psychos to have guns just so they've got an excuse to use theirs in "self defence"
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Probably should have waited until after the debates for the Presidency. This is only going to help the blowhard Trump. I can just hear him now saying "Obama/democrats are coming for your guns. I can tell you, this isn't going to happen with me. The 2nd amendment is very important to me."
 

JordanN

Banned
The spike in gun purchases over the next few days will be absolutely insane. Anything he does enact as an executive order will do next to nothing to stop gun violence though. America will always have mass shootings. Even if they put a 100% ban on all guns it's impossible to enforce and with the amount of guns already out in the population there's always going to be a way to get one illegally.

It's really gross there's a "do nothing about it" argument.

It's what enables people to go shoot up a school because to them "it was always going to happen". Something can be done, even if it means waiting 50 years to see the result.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Probably should have waited until after the debates for the Presidency. This is only going to help the blowhard Trump. I can just hear him now saying "Obama/democrats are coming for your guns. I can tell you, this isn't going to happen with me. The 2nd amendment is very important to me."

Some things are more important than politics.

Also, Trump as the nominee would all but guarantee a Dem presidency and maybe even a congress if the margins are big enough. It's too late to undo the damage Trump has done so we may as well do the best with a bad situation.
 
isn't that akin to saying you can make any choices as long as they are these?

I mean, I don't like guns, never held one, have no interest of owning one, but it just doesn't seem like a good way to do it. From an outside perspective, it almost seems knee-jerk.

Am executive order can be overturned by the next president (as early as January 2017) or overturned by the Supreme Court in a legal challenge. The only people who can't do shit about it are Congress. If he knows Congress will not pass any gun legislation at all, this is the only recourse. Which has the added risk of tanking the election for the incumbent party if America thinks it's a terrible law.

Notably, the Supreme Court has only twice ever overturned an executive order in the last 200+ years.
 

Arkeband

Banned
An executive order? Isn't that excessive?

https://youtu.be/JUDSeb2zHQ0

Like, I am not close minded on gun control laws and such, that would be stupid, but it as an executive order doesn't sit well with me.

When the NRA (read: gun manufacturers, or less than 5% of all gun owners) completely own a political party (Republicans), sometimes you have to take drastic measures.

Most people would agree that gun show loopholes and background checks not being universal are things that could be fixed without infringing on the rights of responsible gun owners. Therefore, common-sense solutions that our government could provide in this case are being held up by special interests.
 

Skytylz

Banned
Who's history? History is created. He'll be remembered like a liberal Reagan, but the right will certainly continue to vilify him for years to come.

I interpreted the post your responding to as how he'll be viewed in 100 years or more. Long enough for people to be divorced from the emotion of the times.
 
While I am absolutely in favor of tighter gun control, I am not in favor of executive action on this front. Regardless of how mundane this executive order is, it plays rigtpht into the hands of the NRA and basically confirms (at least in the minds of the gun rights activists) that Obama is trying to unilaterally take away their guns (even if in reality, this is simply improving background checks).

Meh ... congresses inaction caused this. Most people who own guns are fine with closing the loophole and improving checks. Including this one.

The NRA and right wing will be fierce though.
 

HylianTom

Banned
Some things are more important than politics.

Also, Trump as the nominee would all but guarantee a Dem presidency and maybe even a congress if the margins are big enough. It's too late to undo the damage Trump has done so we may as well do the best with a bad situation.
Trump giving us a Dem White House + a Dem Congress (through 2018) + a left-leaning SCOTUS (for at least a decade or two) would make a lot of good possible.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Trump giving us a Dem White House + a Dem Congress (through 2018) + a left-leaning SCOTUS (for at least a decade or two) would make a lot of good possible.

Would we really get a Dem congress? I'm not huge into politics so why are people assuming that it will happen?
 

turtle553

Member
Isn't the "gun show loophole" just the fact that people tend to have make private transactions at these outside of the gunshow when they're not licensed dealers. But people can make private transactions without a background check any place. You can sell your neighbor a gun, or you brother, or whatever without doing a background check (in most states)

Yeah, It would just be a ban on undocumented private sales. "Gun show loophole" is good branding to make people think it's something nefarious. It is already illegal to sell someone a gun if you have reason to believe they are not legally allowed to own one (hard to prove you knew though).
 

PBY

Banned
Thanks Obama for an extra christmas bonus, my stock investments in Smith and Wesson (SWHC) and Ruger (RGR) have more than doubled this year alone, I'd expect the panic buying from the news of this report to double it again in the next 3 months.

I could go buy some new guns with the extra money!

Don't want to say youre a bad person. But what the fuck.
 

JordanN

Banned
I just wish Obama would enact by force that guns have to be regulated or else.

Pull your troops from Afghanistan and bring them back to the U.S so they can protect those from any rogue gun owner that attempts to harm them.
 
An executive order? Isn't that excessive?

https://youtu.be/JUDSeb2zHQ0

Like, I am not close minded on gun control laws and such, that would be stupid, but it as an executive order doesn't sit well with me.

The vast majority of Americans support extra gun control, including republican voters and the senate blocks any gun bill even ones designed to stop suspected terrorists on watch lists and violent mentally ill people from obtaining weapons. Hell, if they even came up with a new idea or boosted funding for mental health which they constantly blame for mass shootings then maybe you can look past it but in the same day as they blocked a gun control bill they passed another defunding health care.
 

Piggus

Member
Expanded background checks should have happened a long time ago. I can't imagine the courts would overturn this.

That's pretty surprising given all the attacks lately. I suppose you can't change the mentality of people when the culture has been ingrained since the constitution was written

More like people are being educated about what an "assault weapons" ban would actually do and realize that it's a complete waste of time.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Some things are more important than politics.

Also, Trump as the nominee would all but guarantee a Dem presidency and maybe even a congress if the margins are big enough. It's too late to undo the damage Trump has done so we may as well do the best with a bad situation.

Trump giving us a Dem White House + a Dem Congress (through 2018) + a left-leaning SCOTUS (for at least a decade or two) would make a lot of good possible.

It really would.

Now that would make America great again. I really hope that will end up happening. I hope Trump just destroys the GOP. They deserve it at this point.
 
The right wing media is gonna go nuts about this.

Obama could issue an executive order that puts at minimum one gun into every household and right wing media would just contort it to Obama supplying domestic terrorists with weapons because some of those households happened to belong to persons of color.
 
Obama could issue an executive order that puts at minimum one gun into every household and right wing media would just contort it to Obama supplying domestic terrorists with weapons because some of those households happened to belong to persons of color.

They despise him no matter what he does.
 

McLovin

Member
Fucking finally. I'm ik with people wanting to own guns for protection, but put some fucking barriers to keep out the wackos ffs.
 
Would we really get a Dem congress? I'm not huge into politics so why are people assuming that it will happen?

It's possible. There's a lot of republicans who are more centrist saying they'll vote Clinton if he runs and another group that just won't vote. If trump running suppresses the GOP vote but bolsters the DEM vote then it's possible. Though probably still really difficult. If trump runs 3rd party there's an argument to be made that this will actually increase GOP turnout and likely be bad for DEMS down ticket even though it would ensure a Hillary win.
 
It's possible. There's a lot of republicans who are more centrist saying they'll vote Clinton if he runs and another group that just won't vote. If trump running suppresses the GOP vote but bolsters the DEM vote then it's possible. Though probably still really difficult. If trump runs 3rd party there's an argument to be made that this will actually increase GOP turnout and likely be bad for DEMS down ticket even though it would ensure a Hillary win.

That makes sense. Depressing sense, but sense nevertheless.
 

The Lamp

Member
Presidents should have more powers IMO. Executive Order ahead.

Gun show loophole is stupid.
Selling weapons online is stupid.
Not having photo ID or background checks is stupid.

Heck, buying a car is more complicated than buying a gun

You say they should have more power.
But if Trump were president you would probably not say that. Executive orders bypass our natural legislation process, don't they?

I agree with Obama's executive orders. But just because I do, does that actually make them right? They bypass our system, don't they?
 

Goliath

Member
I really don't understand why even idiots who are pro gun want sales to be unregulated, it's almost as if they want dodgy criminals and psychos to have guns just so they've got an excuse to use theirs in "self defence"

In their minds any step towards gun regulation leads to all out gun bans or basically make it impossible to buy or own a gun.
 
Fuck the NRA and fuck the gun nuts. They can continue to live in their fantasyland where Emperor Obama is secretly taking their guns away. In the meantime I'll be glad that at the least the bare-minimum is being done to protect the population.
 

JordanN

Banned
In their minds any step towards gun regulation leads to all out gun bans or basically make it impossible to buy or own a gun.

Ironically, if they already own a bunch of guns, why would they care?

Does it really matter if they can't buy another pistol to go with their ak-47 collection?
 

Goliath

Member
You say they should have more power.
But if Trump were president you would probably not say that. Executive orders bypass our natural legislation process, don't they?

I agree with Obama's executive orders. But just because I do, does that actually make them right? They bypass our system, don't they?

So then what is the point of an executive order and under what conditions should they be used? I mean with that line of thinking, shouldn't EVERYTHING just get debated by Congress?
 

BokehKing

Banned
What about illegal guns though?

These decisions Obama makes would be much more popular if there was a way he can somehow crack down on illegal guns (I know he can't, I know no president probably could, just wishful thinking)
 
You say they should have more power.
But if Trump were president you would probably not say that. Executive orders bypass our natural legislation process, don't they?

I agree with Obama's executive orders. But just because I do, does that actually make them right? They bypass our system, don't they?

Obama has issued less executive orders per year than the last 21 American presidents. It is one of the more ridiculous criticisms of his presidency.

What about illegal guns though?

These decisions Obama makes would be much more popular if there was a way he can somehow crack down on illegal guns (I know he can't, I know no president probably could, just wishful thinking)

>80% of mass shootings are done with legally purchased firearms.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
There should be a written mental test for each new gun owners.

It should be the same as the driving test at the very minimum.

You say they should have more power.
But if Trump were president you would probably not say that. Executive orders bypass our natural legislation process, don't they?

I agree with Obama's executive orders. But just because I do, does that actually make them right? They bypass our system, don't they?

They don't. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how they work. He cannot make new law, all he can do is futz with how federal agencies enforce current law.
 

Future

Member
Details of this order need to be carefully constructed. Banning loopholes and not guns themselves would put it in a position that would be hard to argue against without being a twat

Ban any gun archetype will overshadow any of the good with "taking away or guns!" Rhetoric.
 
Executive Actions aren't worth shit, especially this late in a president's term. It's hard to enforce them because they aren't law, and future presidents are likely to toss them out the window.
 

thefro

Member
It'd be hilarious if he defined gun-hoarders as being mentally ill and therefore unable to pass a background check to buy more guns.
 

Goliath

Member
Ironically, if they already own a bunch of guns, why would they care?

Does it really matter if they can't buy another pistol to go with their ak-47 collection?

Because the government could make it harder or riskier for them to just hand off their gun collection to their family or keep it. If they force every gun owner to get on a list the jig is up for them. Then we could do things like tax them more, etc.

I mean there is some logic to it but at the end of the day it's the "I got mine, screw everyone else" mentality. The best is that when it comes to gun legislation it's the only time that people (usually white) can get away with threatening Cop's lives. They "dare" the police to come after their guns and society says "well that's an acceptable reaction". But don't let BLM protest, that creates "anti Cop mentality" that puts their lives at risk, lol.
 
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