Obama’s gun control push undercut by fall in prosecutions – The administration has overseen a striking drop in prosecutions of gun crimes, winning only about 6,000 convictions in 2015 — down more than 15 percent from five years ago, and giving added weight to claims by gun rights groups that President Obama has failed to enforce the laws already on the books. As a series of high-profile mass shootings has drawn attention to the issue, Mr. Obama has pushed for ever-stricter gun laws prohibiting sales of some firearms and paraphernalia, and more controls on whom they can be sold to. But the push comes as his lawyers at the Justice Department are winning fewer cases using the laws already passed to ban criminals from buying or owning firearms, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The trend predates Mr. Obama, with convictions peaking at 9,206 a decade ago but dropping to 6,002 in fiscal year 2015 — a fall of more than a third.
|
|
|
| Politico is now reporting that the Obama administration is likely to unveil new executive actions on guns next week. Politico says, “The White House is putting finishing touches on several measures in an effort to make progress on curbing gun violence.” These gun-control actions are expected to require more people who sell guns to be licensed and to require gun makers to report guns that are lost in transit (perhaps stolen) as they are shipped to gun dealers—by law, gun manufacturers can only ship guns to licensed dealers. As they’ve prepared these actions, President Barack Obama has met with former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who has long funded and, to some extent, run anti-gun-rights groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety. President Obama, however, is not known to have met with people from gun-rights groups. |
| |
|
|
| Signaling that it plans a major anti-Clinton push in the upcoming presidential election year, the National Rifle Association on Thursday released a video showing Hillary Clinton laughing at “resolutions” to read the Constitution and understand firearm ownership. The video, produced by the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, concludes with it’s own message: “We have resolutions for 2016, too.” |
| |
|
|
| A pair of masked men, at least one of whom was armed with what appeared to be a gun, entered a liquor store in San Bernardino, Calif. and attempted to rob the store. The clerks on duty responded to the threat by retrieving handguns and firing at the robber, striking one of the thieves multiple times. The robbers fled in a vehicle, but were quickly captured by police. The wounded robber was taken to a hospital. San Bernardino police Lt. Richard Lawhead told a local media outlet that the robbers might have been involved in other crimes in the area. |
| |
|
|
| “It finally took a terrorist attack in San Bernardino to finally shame Barack Obama’s Department of Justice to do it’s job and prosecute a straw purchaser. Unfortunately, we can expect them to drop this charge, as they almost always do.” |
| |
|
|
| President Barack Obama’s bid to assert himself in his final year will begin with long-awaited executive actions on gun control which are expected to be released next week, shortly after he returns to Washington. The White House is putting finishing touches on several measures in an effort to make progress on curbing “gun violence”, an issue the president and close aides have found frustratingly intractable, before the race to replace him enters prime time. |
