Watch President Barack Obama with CNN’s Anderson Cooper this Thursday, January 7 at 8 p.m. ET for a town hall meeting on guns in America.
Story highlights
Obama expected to launch new gun control actions in coming weeks
New executive actions could partially close the "gun show loophole"
Republican candidates have accused Obama of overstepping his authority
The Obama administration will announce a series of executive actions on Tuesday to combat gun violence in the U.S.
Among other things, the actions would expand mandatory background checks for some private sales. The administration would also provide more funding for mental health treatment, FBI staff and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives agents.
“These are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch,” Obama told reporters gathered Monday in the Oval Office. “But they are also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support and believe in.”
With Attorney General Loretta Lynch by his side, the President said he planned to roll out the new restrictions, aimed at combating a wave of recent shootings, in the coming days. He will hold a town hall on the topic Thursday that will air on CNN and is expected to make it a focus next week during his final State of the Union address.
Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have blasted any attempt by the White House to crack down on gun rules.
“Pretty soon you won’t be able to get guns,” Donald Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday during an interview on “New Day.” “It’s another step in the way of not getting guns.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan called out the President’s “dismissiveness” toward the Second Amendment as well as Congress.
“While we don’t yet know the details of the plan, the President is at minimum subverting the legislative branch, and potentially overturning its will,” Ryan said in a statement Monday. “His proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected. No President should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally.”
