A tearful President Obama issued an executive order to expand background checks before purchasing a firearm in a speech given at the White House on Tuesday.
“Anyone in the business of selling firearms must have a license and must conduct background checks or face criminal prosecution,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re doing it, over the internet or at a gun show, it’s not where you do it, but what you do.”
He became emotional, wiping away tears, when discussing mass shootings that have occurred in America.
“Our unalienable right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were stripped from college kids in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara and from high schoolers at Columbine,” he said. “And from first graders in Newtown. First graders. And from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken by a bullet from a gun.”
The executive order will also provide more funding for mental health treatment and hire more federal employees to help handle background checks.
For the town of Chapel Hill, the issue of gun violence hits especially close to home, something the President mentioned in his speech.
“Our right to worship freely and safely, that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina,” he said. “And denied Jews in Kansas City and that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill and Sikhs in Oak Creek. They had rights too.”
The president was referencing the shootings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha in February of 2015.
But, gun violence shook Chapel Hill on Christmas Day, also.
Following the shooting of Maleah Williams, Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger issued a statement.
“Our community should be a safe and peaceful place for everyone. We need greater gun control measures now that will reduce the availability of guns here and everywhere.”
Commissioner Earl McKee also issued a statement.
“We cannot view these killings as something that happens to others without the danger, as a community, of becoming numb to them and eventually accepting them as part of life.”
NC Fourth District Congressman David Price issued the following statement regarding the executive action:
“As I said after Sandy Hook, Charleston, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Roseburg, San Bernardino, and Chapel Hill, I categorically reject the notion that we can’t develop reasonable reforms that will save lives while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. I have long advocated for proposals like requiring background checks for gun sales at gun shows or over the Internet and lifting the ban on federally-funded gun violence research, ideas that have widespread support throughout the country.
The reforms President Obama announced today are limited in scope, but they are a well-designed first step and fall well within his constitutional authority. He has repeatedly emphasized that he would much prefer congressional action on gun violence; unfortunately, Republican leadership in Congress refuses to consider even the most common-sense gun reform proposals. Executive action is his only recourse.
Pretending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. Neither will pandering to special interests over the concerns of the majority of the American people. Congress must finally get the message that something can and must be done about gun violence. The future of our country is at stake.”
For a full video of President Obama’s speech, click here.
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