WASHINGTON—Gearing up for a certain confrontation with Congress, President Barack Obama defended his plans to tighten the nation’s gun-control restrictions on his own, insisting Monday, Jan. 4, that the steps he'll announce fall within his legal authority and uphold the constitutional right to own a gun.
Opening his final year in office on an aggressive note, Obama summoned his attorney general and FBI chief to the Oval Office to firm up a set of measures he said he'd announce over the next few days. Although the details are still uncertain, Obama’s administration has been preparing behind the scenes to expand background checks on gun sales by forcing more sellers to register as dealers.
“This is not going to solve every violent crime in this country,” Obama said, tempering expectations for gun control advocates calling for far-reaching executive action. “It’s not going to prevent every mass shooting; it’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal. It will potentially save lives and spare families the pain of these extraordinary losses.”
More than three years after the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, with many other mass shootings since, Obama is training his attention once again on a policy goal that has eluded his administration. He tried the legislative route in 2013, pushing hard for a package that included expanded background checks. But that effort collapsed spectacularly in Congress. Obama and his aides have described their inability to move the issue forward as one of the most frustrating failures in his presidency.
