US determined to curb gun violence
2013-01-10 15:09
Washington - Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday
the White House is determined to act quickly to curb gun violence and will
explore all avenues - including executive orders that would not require
approval by Congress - to try to prevent incidents like last month's massacre
at a Connecticut school.
Kicking off a series of meetings on gun violence, Biden
said the administration would work with gun-control advocates and gun-rights
supporters to build a consensus on restrictions.
But he made clear that President Barack Obama is prepared
to act on his own if necessary.
"We are not going to get caught up in the notion
that unless we can do everything, we're going to do nothing. It's critically
important that we act," said Biden, who will meet on Thursday with pro-gun
groups including the National Rifle Association (NRA), which claims 4 million
members and is the gun lobby's most powerful organisation.
Biden, whose panel was formed after 20 schoolchildren and
six adults were killed on 14 December by a gunman at an elementary school in
Newtown, Connecticut, has been ordered by Obama to come up with policy proposals
on guns by the end of January.
The vice president said there was a consensus on
"three or four or five" steps regarding gun safety, but did not
specify what they were.
"There are executive orders, executive action that
can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet," Biden said, adding
that Obama is conferring with Attorney General Eric Holder on potential action.
Biden's group is expected to recommend to Congress the
reinstatement of an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
The Washington Post has reported the group also will ask
Congress for broad restrictions that include tracking the sale and movement of
weapons via a national database, and stiffer checks on the mental health of
prospective gun buyers.
During his daily briefing, White House spokesperson Jay
Carney declined to discuss any action Obama might take on his own on guns.
"Those decisions haven't been made," Carney said.
The Connecticut school shootings galvanised activists on
both sides of the gun-control issue. In Washington and across the nation, the
slayings inspired new calls for more restrictive gun laws and led gun-rights
advocates to mobilise in opposition.
Obama promised to put gun control at the top of his
agenda after he begins his second term on 20 January, but the issue will have
to compete with a crush of other priorities including a looming budget
confrontation with congressional Republicans.
'Determined to take action'
There have been other pushes for gun control in recent
years, but such efforts were typically blocked by the influential gun lobby,
which enjoys widespread support among Republicans and significant backing among
Democrats as well.
But now, "the president and I are determined to take
action," Biden said at Wednesday's meeting with gun violence victims and
gun-control advocates.
"This is not an exercise in photo opportunities or
just getting to ask you all what your opinions are. We're reaching out to all
parties on whatever side of the debate you fall," he said.
Wal-Mart Stores, the largest US gun seller, also will
participate in Thursday's White House meetings. Wal-Mart reversed its initial
decision not to send anyone to the Biden gathering to share the company's
position.
"We underestimated the expectation to attend the
meeting on Thursday in person, so we are sending an appropriate representative
to participate," spokesman David Tovar said.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to End Gun
Violence, attended Wednesday's meeting and told reporters there was broad
consensus on strengthening background checks and a general convergence of ideas
on many other restrictions.
"What the gun lobby is trying to do is drag ... the
American public down into the same old political debate," Gross said.
Issues ordered
Even without action by Congress, Obama could issue orders
to improve background checks on gun buyers, ban certain gun imports and bolster
oversight of dealers.
Other executive orders could improve information sharing
among law enforcement authorities about illegal gun purchases, and maintain data
on gun sales for longer periods.
Obama has said he believes most Americans support the
reinstatement of a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons, barring
the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips, and a law requiring background
checks on buyers before all gun purchases.
It is unclear whether any of those measures will have
more support in Congress after the Connecticut massacre than they did after
previous mass shootings.
With the federal outcome uncertain, some states are
taking action on their own.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to enact the
country's strictest assault weapons ban and outlaw all high-capacity magazines.
"Gun violence has been on a rampage as we know
firsthand and we know painfully," Cuomo said on Wednesday in his annual
State of the State address, committing New York to leading the country in
enacting new gun control laws. "We must stop the madness, my
friends."
In neighbouring Connecticut, Governor Dannel Malloy urged
US lawmakers to tighten federal gun control measures in response to the
shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
"As long as weapons continue to travel up and down
[interstate highway] I-95, what is available for sale in Florida or Virginia
can have devastating consequences here in Connecticut," said Malloy, who
paused and fought back tears, his voice cracking, when discussing the tragedy
at Sandy Hook.
Gun sales
A federal appeals court signalled on Wednesday it is
prepared to uphold one of the few gun control measures put forward so far by
the Obama administration - a regulation designed to detect the sale of
semi-automatic rifles to Mexican drug cartels.
Gun retailers and manufacturers, including a trade group
based in Newtown, said the rule is burdensome and violates federal law.
The measure requires stores in the four US states
bordering Mexico to send a notice to federal law enforcement whenever someone
buys two or more of a certain kind of high-calibre, semi-automatic rifle with a
detachable magazine.
The court is expected to rule on the case within the next
few months.
During a hearing on Wednesday, the court's three judges
repeatedly questioned whether the rule created too much extra work for gun
sellers and manufacturers.
In Colorado, prosecutors ended their pre-trial case
against accused movie house gunman James Holmes by showing photos he took of
himself by cellphone, posing with firearms and body armour.
The photos capped three days of hearings in which
prosecutors laid out their case for putting him on trial.
Defence lawyers declined to present evidence or witnesses
of their own.
The onetime neuroscience doctoral student is charged with
multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the 12 people
slain and dozens of others wounded in the Denver suburb of Aurora in a July
shooting attack.
