16 January 2013
GOVERNMENT: The White House looks to approach gun control on a broader level.
By Kate Weggeland, Staff Writer
The White House is revisiting the topic of gun control. Vice President Joseph Biden is considering more in-depth background checks on the consumers of guns. He has also proposed that by tracking the sale and movement of guns and other weapons through a national database, gun control would prove less of a problem.
After the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which resulted in the loss of 20 children and six adults, President Barack Obama assigned Vice President Biden the task of designing an effective plan for gun control. Under Vice President Biden’s proposed measures, mental health checks would be strengthened and “penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors would be stiffened,” the Washington Post reported. Vice President Biden’s approach to gun control was widely supported and backed by law enforcement leaders.
In order to implement such changes, the White House must avoid the National Rifle Association (NRA), which boasts “rallying support from Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other gun retailers for measures that would benefit their businesses,” according to the Post. “The NRA has successfully lobbied federal lawmakers to stop major new gun restriction since a 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.”
New York Democratic Senators Charles Shumer and Kirsten Gillibrand “urged Biden to include in his proposals measures to prevent trafficking in illegal guns and to make it harder for felons and the mentally ill to get firearms.”