President Barack Obama announced new executive actions on Tuesday aimed at tightening control and enforcement of firearms in the U.S.
A more sweeping definition of gun dealers is at the center of the actions. The administration hopes it will stop gun sellers from getting around the background-check requirement by failing to register as licensed dealers. The licensing requirement will now be required of anyone who's "in the business'' of selling firearms. The FBI will also have 230 new examiners to process background checks.
Obama spoke of mass shootings, inducing the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut
"First-graders,'' Obama said woefully, resting his chin on his hand and wiping away tears as he recalled the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.''
Obama was introduced by Mark Barden, the father of Daniel Barden, one of the 20 students killed in Newtown. Barden said in the three years since the shootings in Newtown, too many lives have been lost to gun violence.
"Far too many people right now who are hearing these words are grieving the lost of a love one through gun violence," Barden said. "As a nation, we have to do better. We are better. We are better than this."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D, Conn.) said on Tuesday that President Obama’s executive actions are important for victim's families and survivors of the Sandy Hook Shooting.
Murphy said the families can see that some gun control progress can be made more than three years since the shooting, even if it doesn’t happen in Congress.
"The president’s actions today are pretty modest," said Murphy, "There’s going to be some more gun sales that happen at gun shows and on the internet that will be subject to background checks, but it will save lives.”
Murphy said it’s his job to convince Congress that it needs to act on gun control.
A 2013 bill that called for universal background checks failed in the Senate. Congress has not considered another gun control bill since.
The National Rifle Association said that Obama's actions would not have prevented any of the mass shootings that Obama mentioned, including Newtown.
The NRA called the actions "ripe for abuse," although the group didn't specify what steps, if any, it will take to oppose or try to block it.