The president announced his plans today for addressing the issue of gun violence. Flanked by children who wrote in to the president concerned about their safety and with family members of the victims of the Newtown tragedy in the audience, he released this.
I'll get into what I think about his four main action items for Congress in a minute but let's talk about the 23 executive orders that he issued today. They are:
1. Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. "Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
Holy crap...this shit just got real. The media is largely ignoring this list and saying that the stuff with the serious teeth need Congressional approval. I disagree. If we started with this list, we'd start to make a dent, particularly with the issue of mental health. I think we are going to see a serious improvement in how view and handle mental health in this country by the end of the president's second term. That is a very, very good thing.
The other items strengthen existing laws already on the books (something the gun lobby has been calling for) so you wouldn't think they would complain but they are (natch!). Oh well. They can gripe all they want but the rest of us are moving on without them.
As for the the big ticket items, here's what I'd do. Put items 1, 3 and 4 in one bill and dare the House GOP to vote against it. All three of these items have the support of 80-90 percent of Americans. Background checks are common for all sorts of things, not just guns. We can increase school safety in a number of ways, included police officers or armed security. Increasing access to mental health services is universally supported.
Item #2 is pointless. Banning guns or ammunition won't do anything. He would have been better suited here to adopt Israel's gun registration and training process. We can't restrict the guns but we can increase the rigor involved in who gets to carry one. Remember, it's not the guns, it's the people and there are many that should not have guns. Some of this will be solved with the increase background checks to that is a good thing.
Today was a giant step forward and the president put it back to us to get it done. He admitted that he can't do this alone so are we going to help him?
3 comments:
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
Tell the government to follow the law.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
Tell the regulators to stop the stupid and useless regulations.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
Pay the states back for the unfunded mandates that the Feds keeps making.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
Tell the Attorney General to do his job.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
Start another unfunded mandate. (See #3.)
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
Tell FDLs how to do something no one is ever going to bother to do.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
Do the same thing the NRA already does, only half as well at twice the cost.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
Do what Underwriters Laboratories already does, only half as well at twice the cost.
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
Tell the Feds to do their jobs.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
Tell the DOJ to do its job.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
Tell myself to do my job.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
Spend more money.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
Tell everyone to do their goddamned jobs.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
Tell the doctors to figure out why it isn’t the feds’ fault that they aren’t doing their jobs.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
Figure out a way to push “smart guns” that don’t exist and wouldn’t be useful as guns if they did.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
Tell everyone that Obamacare doesn’t actually mean what it says.
Con't
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
Tell everyone that, seriously, Obamacare doesn’t actually mean that. We had to pass it to find out what was in it, after all.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
Tell everyone that I’ve been a partisan hack for the last month every time I said the NRA was crazy to want to post more cops in schools.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
Do the same thing that every police agency in the country has already done, only half as well and at ten times the cost.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
Tell doctors what they already know.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
Tell people what the parts of Obamacare that don’t say anything say.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
Tell HHS to do their job.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
Hand the rest of the job of telling everyone to do their jobs off to someone else so it is no longer my job.
Credit to The Everlasting Phelps. http://phelps.donotremove.net/2013/01/obamas-new-executive-orders/
LMAO - this is "got real"? You just couldn't be more gullible could you? He hasn't done shit and your devotion continues undiminished.
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