President Barack Obama will announce new gun control measures starting with background checks tomorrow morning in remarks at the White House.
'Over the next several days we'll be rolling out these initiatives, we'll be making sure that people have a very clear understanding of what can make a difference and what we can do,' Obama said today after a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other members of his team to finalize the measures.
On a call with reporters, Lynch, senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and Press Secretary Josh Earnest outlined some of the specifics of the actions in advance of President Obama's a.m. speech.
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President Barack Obama will announce new gun control measures 'quite soon,' the White House said today
'Over the next several days we'll be rolling out these initiatives, we'll be making sure that people have a very clear understanding of what can make a difference and what we can do,' Obama said today after a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, left, and other members of his team to finalize the measures
Obama met today with top law enforcement officials in the Oval Office to discuss executive actions the president can take to curb gun violence. From left seated are: Counsel to the President Neil Eggleston, acting ATF Director Thomas Brandon, Attorney General Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates
One big piece of the puzzle will be new guidance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, that will more precisely define which sellers don't need a license.
'The goal is keeping bad actors away from firearms,' said Lynch.
Currently, the statute the administration is tinkering with gives exemptions to collectors and hobbyists.
Those distinctions will now be much more narrowly defined, with the hope being that the guidance will compel more gun sellers to register and thus require background checks.
As for an exact number of sellers it will affect, Lynch said it was 'impossible to predict right now.'
'The president will make clear that no matter where you conduct your business, from a gun store, or a gun show, or over the internet, if you're in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks,' Jarrett explained.
Lynch explained that the gun show loophole that is often discussed, has turned into an internet loophole as well, with more people heading online to buy firearms.
The new guidance would impact sellers off and online.
'Now it's important to note that the hobbyist and collectors exception is still there and it will still be used as it was intended, ' Lynch added. 'But people will no longer be able to hide behind that.'
ATF, Jarrett said, will make clear that 'facts and circumstances' determine whether an individual is engaged in the gun-selling business.
'Facts such as, whether you represent yourself as a dealer, such as making business cards or taking credit card payments, whether you sell firearms shortly after they're acquired and whether you buy or sell in the original packaging,' Jarrett said.
And because there's no number of guns listed in the pre-existing law, there's no magic number of guns someone can sell before being required to apply for a license.
'You can make one or two transactions and still be engaged in the business,' Jarrett explained.
ATF is also working on a rule that would require background checks for individuals trying to buy 'some of the most dangerous weapons,' as the White House put it, through a trust, corporation or other legal entity.
The agency is working on an additional rule that would compel dealers to notify law enforcement if their guns are lost or stolen in transit.
For the background checks, the FBI is working to hire 230 more examiners and possibly schedule examiners to be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
As the law stands now, if a background check doesn't come back within three days, the gun sale goes through.
Congress will need to pass some of what the president wants to do, including adding 200 ATF agents to the roster to enforce gun laws.
He also wants $500 million to be added to the mental health budget.
Earnest pointed to the fact that House Speaker Paul Ryan had called for greater emphasis on mental health care in the aftermath of the San Bernardino attack.
While Earnest called Ryan's claim 'a little dubious,' pointing to the Republican plan to vote to kill the Affordable Care Act, which increased funding for mental health care, the press secretary also suggested that this particular piece of the gun control action could get bipartisan support.
The president met with a handful of Democratic lawmakers this afternoon at the White House, as well, to discuss the actions, which the White House says will 'reduce gun violence and make our communities safer.'
Republicans have already made quick work at disparaging the president for taking it upon himself to change the rules.
The White House said today that the president wouldn't have to act if Congress had not 'utterly failed in their responsibility to do so.'
'There are steps that Congress can take that would not undermine the basic, Constitutional rights of law abiding Americans. But Congress has refused,' White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. 'So the president is going to use his executive authority to follow through and take what steps he can.'
Even after that, though, he said, 'Congress is still going to have a responsibility to act in their own right as well.'
'This will not eliminate the responsibility that Congress has,' Earnest stated. 'The president is going to make this announcement soon, and there will be some important steps that he will take, but that will not be the end of this debate.'
At a town hall this morning, Florida Senator and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio promised to repeal 'whatever unlawful or unconstitutional executive orders this president imposes to try to undermine the Second Amendment' on his first day in the Oval Office.
'If you look at these mass-shootings, none of them would have been prevented by the things the president is pointing to. Because these criminals either would have passed the background check if they hadn't committed crimes in the past, or they just don't care what the law is,' Rubio said.
Gun control activists are seen rallying in front of the White House today. The White House is playing coy with the timing of the president's announcement, which is expected this week and as soon as tomorrow
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called President Obama 'a petulant child,' during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.
'Whenever he can't get what he wants, because frankly, the American people have rejected his agenda by turning over the House and the Senate to Republicans, going from 21 Republican governors when he came into office, now 31 – now he wants to act like a king,' Christie said.
'The fact is if he wants to make changes to these laws, go to congress and convince congress they're necessary, but this is going to be another illegal executive action which I'm sure will be rejected by the courts,' Christie continued.
'When I become president, they will be stricken from executive action by executive action I will take,' the Republican hopeful added.
The party's frontrunner, Donald Trump, was also miffed as to why the president wasn't guiding this legislation through Congress, which rejected a proposal to expand background checks in 2013.
'Why he couldn't get this approved by Congress. Why can't he go in and get this approved?' Trump said this morning to CNN's Chris Cuomo.
He told the New Day co-host, 'If something is seemingly cut and dry, as you like to say it is, why can't the system work the way it was supposed to be, you know, the way it was supposed to be working, the way it was designed?'
'Why isn't he getting Republicans and Democrats together and doing something?' the billionaire businessman mused.
'He keeps signing executive orders because he doesn't meet with people,' Trump continued. 'Maybe he doesn't like people, I guess.'
Republicans have already made quick work at disparaging the president for taking it upon himself to change the rules
Trump said the executive order indicated the president didn't want to put in the work.
'He wants to go back and play golf,' Trump said.
Noting that he didn't know the specifics of Obama's plan, Trump went after it anyway.
'Pretty soon, you won't be able to get guns. I mean, it's another step in the way of not getting guns,' he said.
At a Mississippi rally on Saturday, Trump said of Obama's executive order, 'I will unsign that so fast.'
Carly Fiorina characterized Obama as a 'lawless' president and his plan to take unilateral action on guns is 'delusional, dangerous, not to mention unconstitutional.
'We have long lists of criminals who own guns, who routinely purchase guns. We know who these people are, and we are not prosecuting any of them,' she said on CNN's State of the Union.
During today's White House press briefing, the president's spokesman, Josh Earnest, responded to Christie's jab and said, it's 'probably worth taking a closer look at Governor Christie's record on some of these issues in particular to see whether or not he has changed his position in an effort to try to round up votes in the Republican presidential primary.'
In his statement to reporters after his meeting with Lynch and other top law enforcement officials, Obama said, 'The good news is that these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch, but they're also ones that the overwhelming majority of he American people including gun owners support.'
Obama said the measures 'will potentially save lives...and spare families the pain and the extensive loss that they suffered as a consequence of a firearm being the hands of the wrong people.'
'We're not going to be able to pass a law or take an executive action that would prevent every single incident of gun violence, but if there's something that we can do that would prevent even one, why wouldn't we do it? Obama's spokesman told reporters today
The White House had played coy with the timing of Obama's announcement this afternoon, with Earnest repeatedly saying it would come 'soon' but not when.
Early this evening it revealed that the announcement would take place on Tuesday in the East Room of the White House.
During the briefing, Earnest said, 'More than 30,000 Americans die every year as the result of gun violence.'
'We're not going to be able to pass a law or take an executive action that would prevent every single incident of gun violence, but if there's something that we can do that would prevent even one, why wouldn't we do it? Earnest asked. 'And that's the president's mindset as he enters this meeting with his attorney general and as he prepares to makes some announcements.'
Earnest acknowledged Republican outrage over the president's anticipated actions, and said, 'We know they are likely to try and pursue a creative legal theory to prevent [the] implementation of these rules.'
'And that's why the president once to be sure that the recommendations he has received and the executive actions that he carries out are going to stand up in a court of law. And a lot of work that has gone on has been to ensure that we would have confidence in the legal basis of these actions,' Earnest stated.
At the briefing, Earnest dinged another Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, for saying in an interview that he was open to closing the gun show loophole in 2013.
More recently, Ryan has decried the planned executive action as a 'dangerous level of executive overreach.'
'His proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected,' Ryan said in a statement today. 'No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally.'
However, when talking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel three years ago, Ryan said requiring background checks at gun shows was a 'reasonable' measure to prevent criminals from obtaining weapons, and it's 'obvious' it needs to be addressed.
Ryan said that this was something he had been supportive of since becoming a Member of Congress in 1999.
'I think we need to find out how to close these loopholes and do it in such a way that we don't infringe on people's Second Amendment rights,' Ryan said at the time.
Earnest referred to the quotes today and said of Ryan, a Wisconsin representative, 'He's been in Congress every day for the last three years, and it's unclear exactly what he's done to try to advance legislation that would do what he thinks is, quote, 'obvious' and 'very reasonable'. '
'But certainly, in the next couple of days, we'll have some tangible things that...the president has done to take some common-sense steps that... guns out of the wrong hands,' he said.
Ryan's office told DailyMail.com afterward, in response to Earnest, 'The speaker has never supported what the president is proposing.'
'He believes we should enforce the laws already on the books rather than intruding further into people's lives.'
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