The date was December 14th, 2012. A lone gunman shot his mother and took three of her guns to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Sandy Hook had 700 students in attendance that day-about double the size of my elementary school. He was dressed in all black fatigues carrying a semi-automatic AR-15 and two pistols and shot entrance into the school. This began the day that will forever live in infamy. The town of Newtown, Connecticut has a population only 6,000 more than Avon Lake and has a similar demographic breakdown. Twenty elementary-level students and six adults were shot and killed in one of the most horrific mass shootings in American history. This was the day that changed everything.
The president addressed the nation that day, but something was different about this address. He was notably affected, pale, clammy, fighting back tears. This shooting changed Barack Obama. People everywhere called for gun control. The Republican-held congress was unable to pass any sensible gun control. This forced Barack Obama into passing 25 executive orders aimed at making it harder for the mentally-ill, and criminals to get deadly weapons. That brings us to recently, when Barack Obama set in place about a dozen more executive orders.
These executive orders-despite the screams of many Republican candidates(also known as gun lobby puppets)- are not aimed at "infringing upon the second amendment". These orders are aimed at enforcing existing law. It raises the staff of the federal background check division of the FBI by 50 percent. Puts in place a plan to hire an additional 200 people to focus on gun regulations and offenses. It lastly aims to focus on firearm safety research.
The most important of these actions is shrinking the gun show loophole. Under current federal law, background checks aren't required at a gun show. Making it easy for a criminal to purchase a weapon without a background check. Now you may be thinking, this is an obscure detail, how many people really purchase their guns from a gun show? About 20-30 of gun purchases are purchased at a gun show. Barack Obama's order however doesn't close the loophole entirely but merely shrinks it. These are common sense measures to make America safer.
