More than five months after US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head, the White House has yet to take any new steps on gun violence, even though that is what US President Barack Obama called for in the wake of the shooting.
The silence from the administration is drawing criticism from gun control activists and even some of Obama’s Democratic allies. Senator Frank Lautenberg told the president in a letter last week that the administration “has not shown the leadership to combat gun violence.”
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement that the US Department of Justice is “consulting with the key stakeholders to identify commonsense measures that would improve American safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights.”
He declined to comment further, but whatever the administration produces is likely to fall well short of the steps activists would like to see, such as legislation banning the kind of high--capacity ammunition clips used in the Giffords shooting. Any significant change of that kind would require legislation, but with Congress hostile toward any gun-control bills, the administration sees that avenue as closed.
A US government official involved in the gun control talks said that proposals currently under consideration included ways to improve the background check system dealers use, which activists say is riddled with loopholes.
Some improvements could be made, such as providing states with clearer guidelines on how to provide criminal information to the federal government for the background check database. Although such steps are not nearly as bold as activist groups, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, would like to see, they still hope to see something.
“We’re coming on the six-month mark since the shooting and still nothing from the administration,” Brady Campaign president Paul Helmke said. “It’s time for some action.”
The justice department deliberations began in March, after the president broke his usual silence on guns in an opinion piece in Giffords’ hometown newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star.
“If we’re serious about keeping guns away from someone who’s made up his mind to kill, then we can’t allow a situation where a responsible seller denies him a weapon at one store, but he effortlessly buys the same gun someplace else,” Obama wrote.
Helmke and others interpreted that as support for closing what’s called the “gun-show loophole,” which allows private sellers to sell firearms at gun shows and elsewhere without conducting background checks. Activist groups say that about 40 percent of gun sales are conducted without background checks.
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