President Obama’s plan to protect our kids and help reduce gun violence in America
President Obama has announced his plan to better protect our children and our communities by reducing gun violence in America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DLUNgRAbR7w
President Obama has announced his plan to better protect our children and our communities by reducing gun violence in America.
Most gun owners use their guns legally and responsibly, and the
President strongly believes in an individual right to bear arms, but we
need to take action to better protect our children and communities from
tragic mass shootings like the one in Newtown, Connecticut.
The President’s plan includes:
- Closing background check loopholes to keep guns out of dangerous hands
- Banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and taking other common sense steps
- Making schools safer
- Increasing access to mental health services
President Obama asked Vice President Biden to work with members of this
administration, Congress, law enforcement, teachers, parents,
sportsmen, faith leaders, mental health experts, and other organizations
and individuals to come up with a set of concrete policy proposals.
While no set of laws will guarantee an end to gun violence, the
President's plan includes 23 new executive actions to make immediate
progress, as well as critical steps that Congress should take.
Measures Congress should pass
Alongside the steps that the administration is taking immediately,
there are a series of measures that President Obama is calling on
Congress to pass as soon as possible, including:
- Eliminating loopholes and requiring background checks for all gun sales
- Reinstating the prohibition on high-capacity magazines
- Renewing and strengthening the ban on assault weapons
- Creating serious penalties for gun traffickers
- Getting armor-piercing bullets off the streets by prohibiting the possession and transfer of this dangerous ammunition
- Keep 15,000 cops on the street
- Further research on gun violence
- Help schools develop and implement comprehensive emergency management plans
- Removing restrictions that require ATF to authorize importation of dangerous weapons simply because of their age
23 executive actions the President has already signed
Closing background check loopholes
1. Require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers 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
Common sense steps to reduce gun violence
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. Require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations
10. Release a DOJ (Department of Justice) 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
Making schools safer
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
Increasing access to mental health services
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
You can find out more about the President's plan at whitehouse.gov