Barack Obama came out all guns blazing at the gun lobby yesterday. He delivered a powerful speech in the White House that made not only the US but the entire world listen. A tear-stained president made an emotional, last-ditch call in the final year of his office for gun control to keep guns out of wrong hands and make America safe for all Americans. He wiped tears as he remembered children who died in mass shooting as he outlined new steps his administration would take to tighten gun laws. His voice shivered as he said the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms needed to be balanced by the rights of others – the right to worship, gather peacefully and live their lives. Obama laid out executive action he is taking to require more gun sellers to get licenses and more gun buyers to undergo background checks.
Obama has been pleading passionately for stricter gun control but has been thwarted by the powerful gun lobby and Republicans. The Democratic president failed to persuade Congress to toughen the laws and blamed lawmakers for being in the thrall of the powerful National Rifle
Association. But his dream will be fulfilled one day because he has given the issue an urgency and seriousness that Americans cannot ignore. “In Dr King’s words, we need to feel the fierce urgency of now, because people are dying,” a visibly emotional president said. “Our inalienable right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first graders in Newtown,” he added. Obama has often said his toughest time in office was grappling with the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” Obama said.
Any changes to gun rules in America are fraught with huge political risks. The US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment gives Americans the right to have arms, a right that is fiercely defended.
The gun lobby reaction to Obama’s speech was as expected. Chris Cox, executive director for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement that American people did not need “more emotional, condescending lectures that are completely devoid of facts” and vowed to fight o protect Americans’ constitutional rights to bear arms. Republicans too blasted the president and their White House hopefuls pledged to immediately repeal the orders if they are elected in November.
But this is a battle that will continue for years and it’s unlikely that Obama’s dream will be fulfilled before many more lives are lost.
Barack Obama came out all guns blazing at the gun lobby yesterday. He delivered a powerful speech in the White House that made not only the US but the entire world listen. A tear-stained president made an emotional, last-ditch call in the final year of his office for gun control to keep guns out of wrong hands and make America safe for all Americans. He wiped tears as he remembered children who died in mass shooting as he outlined new steps his administration would take to tighten gun laws. His voice shivered as he said the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms needed to be balanced by the rights of others – the right to worship, gather peacefully and live their lives. Obama laid out executive action he is taking to require more gun sellers to get licenses and more gun buyers to undergo background checks.
Obama has been pleading passionately for stricter gun control but has been thwarted by the powerful gun lobby and Republicans. The Democratic president failed to persuade Congress to toughen the laws and blamed lawmakers for being in the thrall of the powerful National Rifle
Association. But his dream will be fulfilled one day because he has given the issue an urgency and seriousness that Americans cannot ignore. “In Dr King’s words, we need to feel the fierce urgency of now, because people are dying,” a visibly emotional president said. “Our inalienable right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first graders in Newtown,” he added. Obama has often said his toughest time in office was grappling with the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” Obama said.
Any changes to gun rules in America are fraught with huge political risks. The US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment gives Americans the right to have arms, a right that is fiercely defended.
The gun lobby reaction to Obama’s speech was as expected. Chris Cox, executive director for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement that American people did not need “more emotional, condescending lectures that are completely devoid of facts” and vowed to fight o protect Americans’ constitutional rights to bear arms. Republicans too blasted the president and their White House hopefuls pledged to immediately repeal the orders if they are elected in November.
But this is a battle that will continue for years and it’s unlikely that Obama’s dream will be fulfilled before many more lives are lost.
