Via TPM http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
As a quick blush it seems to me the first 6 suggestions look specifically at simply sharing information about Background Checks and the last 4 address the nexus of Mental Health and Gun Issues. Number 18 seems to support the idea of placing better security officers into our schools. Most of this happens to be things that the NRA
Itself has suggested.
How long do you think it will be before the freak out begins?
5... 4... 3... 2...
Even before he made his announcement this morning, and posted a more comprehensive plan here, the NRA put this webad up attacking his position and calling him a "Elitist Hypocrite" for having his own kids under Secret Service protection - but not automatically jumping head-long into the idea of spending $7 Billion to place armed security around every school in America.
Unfortunately for them, the President Isn't completely against that idea.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
He also happens to support the idea of looking for closely at the mentally unstable and their access to guns as well as other issues and problems that affect gun violence.
The fact is that it has been the NRA that has blocked the ability of the CDC to gather information on the impact of Gun Violence.
http://www.motherjones.com/...
How much firepower does the gun lobby have? Consider this: since the mid-90s, the NRA has "all but choked off" money for research on gun violence, according to a story today in the New York Times. "We've been stopped from answering the basic questions," said Mark Rosenberg, the former director of the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used to be the leading source of financing for firearms research. Thanks to the gun lobby's obstruction, questions like whether more guns actually make communities safer, whether the ready availability of high-capacity magazines increases the number of gun-related deaths, or whether more rigorous background checks of gun buyers make a difference, remain maddeningly unanswered.
Here's the thing, if violent video games (which are Rated to protect kids), and violent movies (which are also Rated)
really are a source of violence and gun deaths in our nation - shouldn't the CDC be looking into that and let us know what the facts are?
And that's just about the most aggressive of the President's Executive Actions. Some of the other actions such as actually nominating a Director to the ATF - which hasn't had a Director for the Last 6 Years - seem pretty straight forward.
These are common sense moves that the President can make, some of them are merely suggestions and simply asking law enforcement for do the job we thought they were already doing.
James Yeager can breath easy.
The NRA should be thrilled with this. So should Republicans.
Instead Marco Rubio claims:
Nothing in what the President has suggested would have stopped what happened at Sandy Hook
Yeah, right except for this:
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
Because if Adam Lanza's mother had let the police know she thought her son was a danger to her and himself - things could have been different.
And this...
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
Because if Adam Lanza's mother had a safe or locks to prevent him from taking her guns and using them against her - she and another 26 people would still be alive.
And this...
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
Because having law enforcement, and first responders and schools with the training and officers they need to prevent gun violence -
is the last thing that will prevent gun violence. Just
because, y'know?
Nothing in the President's Executive Actions, or the legislation he is putting forward, would prevent a law abiding and stable citizen from purchasing a legal firearm and using it to hunt or protect their home.
The President is not coming to take your guns away - HA Ha! - but that won't stop people like Lapierre, Alex Jones, Yeager and Rubio from talking Psychotic Bullcrap anyway.
Nothing will.
Vyan
11:41 AM PT: So how nutty does what Rand Paul said yesterday "Obama is not a King" sound today?
Apparently he already knows that, but you don't Rand.