U.S. President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech Tuesday afternoon, presenting his executive action to carry out gun-control measures.
“Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. And we have to be able to balance them,” he said before describing the rights denied to victims of shootings in Charleston, Chapel Hill, Aurora, Oak Creek, and Newtown, Connecticut.
“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” Obama said tearfully while referencing the 20 young children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. “And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago everyday.”
Obama announced his measures to combat gun violence in the U.S., including increased background checks, gun law enforcement, mental health treatment, reporting mental health histories in background checks, and developing technology that makes guns safer.
The most significant requirement introduced by the White House is that “If you’re in the business of selling firearms,” whether at a gun shop, gun show, or on the Internet, “you must get a license and conduct background checks.”
This action could potentially close the gun-show loophole, which enabled the selling of firearms without registration or background checks.
Obama criticized gun-control opponents in Congress, who believe that increased legislation will do little to reduce mass shootings.
“Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying?” he asked.
Invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Obama insisted, “We need to feel the fierce urgency of now,” and said “excuses of inaction” will no longer suffice.
“The United States of America is not the only country on Earth with violent or dangerous people … but we are the only country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency,” he said.
Obama asserted that the purpose of the measure was not to “debate the last mass shooting,” but to prevent the next one.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the Newtown shooting, introduced the president. Obama was also joined by former Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot to the head at a 2011 event, where six people were killed.
Obama will further discuss his executive action at a Thursday town hall event hosted by CNN.
