In light of the recent Oregon community college shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, President Barack Obama has become frustrated with the legislative branch and Congress’ unwillingness to act on amending the gun laws in the United States.

Obama has tried for some time now to make an amendment to the laws on gun safety because of the rise of shootings. He has been unsuccessful because of the legislative branch not approving his changes.

According to an article in The Washington Post, “Under the proposed rule change, dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and perform background checks on potential buyers.”

Obama is tired of waiting for a law to get passed or get changed. I agree with what he is thinking of doing. Yes, there are different circumstances that come with the gun safety issues. By putting more and more restraints on those who can have guns makes it safer for society.

“The problem is that this particular issue is backed by strong constitutional language,” Jose Marichal, Political Science professor, said. “It does seem that restricting high capacity magazines and expanding background checks wouldn’t significantly impinge upon the ‘right to bear arms,’ but there are those that strongly disagree.  Obama can’t pass new laws, but he can use executive authority to change the way current laws are implemented and enforced.”

I think as a citizen and a college student that it is quite scary to hear about the recent rise in gun violence around the United States. To me it seems like it is so easy for anyone to obtain a gun and for anyone to sell guns. I believe Obama is right to try and do everything in his power to make some amendments to the current gun regulations because they obviously aren’t working.

“There is little national data on gun purchases, so it’s not clear how many gun sales this would effect,” an NBC article said. “But gun control advocates say they are worried a growing number of weapons are sold outside the background check process, either online or at gun shows.”

Doing something different with gun laws would be one of the biggest legislation efforts in this time.

“The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year,” according to an article in The Washington Post said. “The current federal statute dictates that those who are ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing firearms need to obtain a federal license — and, therefore, conduct background checks, but exempts anyone ‘who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.’”

It doesn’t make sense to me why it is so difficult to make it harder for people to obtain guns. Especially after the shootings that have come most recently. To me it is reasonable to have more background checks, more restrictions and more reasons to prevent guns into the hands of people who will abuse them.

I think it is also hard to understand that even with tough restrictions guns will still be abused. A lot of times people who abuse guns do not own them. But that does not mean those who own guns have never abused them.

One of the main things I think needs to change, along with the tighter restrictions, is there has to be some sort of gun safety classes those buying guns need to take. This way people properly know where to store guns when they aren’t being used. People can teach their families about gun safety to keep them safer. A gun safety class along with Obama’s plans to tighten restrictions on gun buyers will make people safer than they presently are.

Courtney Sooy
Staff Writer
Published October 21st, 2015