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Obama Is Taking Unilateral Action to Impose New Restrictions on Gun Sales

Presidents can't invent new laws, but they can tweak enforcement.

In a move that prompted accusations of executive overreach before it even officially happened, the Obama administration unveiled a series of executive actions that the president plans to take to expand gun control in the United States. According to the White House, the move aims to curb gun violence by strengthening enforcement of existing gun laws and expanding mental health care.

Presidents can't just invent new laws, but Obama has already demonstrated willingness to tweak enforcement in ways that alter the legal environment, particularly on issues that remain gridlocked in Congress. His unilateral action on immigration in December 2014 was similarly condemned as overreach by his critics.

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Among the key provisions of the package is one that would direct the Justice Department to expand its definition of gun retailers to include anyone who profits off of the sale of a firearm, thereby requiring those sellers to perform background checks on customers under existing federal law. At the president's command, the FBI will hire additional staff to process the influx of new background checks.

The measure is designed to address what's known as the private sales loophole, which—depending on the state—can allow guns to be legally transferred from one owner to another without a background check. In May of last year, House Democrats introduced a bill aimed expressly at closing the "gun show loophole," which gives gun buyers a way around background checks, but the bill failed.

The package also includes directives aimed at prosecuting more domestic violence cases, increasing funding for mental health programs, and directs federal agencies to expand firearms research and data collection.

In a statement Monday, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan accused Obama of "targeting law-abiding citizens," and "intruding further into innocent Americans' lives." Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was more straightforward, telling CNN viewers that "pretty soon you won't be able to get guns."

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