Obama Presser

Obama has been answering questions about guns in his latest press conference. He was asked directly about the gun sales boom, and he essentially said it’s basically just paranoid loons who’s fears have been ginned up by the likes of NRA, and who think the federal government is coming for their guns. He said there would be executive action on the issue, and spoke specifically of tracking guns as one of the issues that could be taken through executive action.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Obama Preparing EOs on Gun Control. Also, it’s Monday
  2. The Sum of all Fears
  3. Hope and Change

40 thoughts on “Obama Presser”

  2. Good thing dictatory Obama does not have to follow the rule of law by having congress pass bills or anything like that.

  3. It’s more likely that he’s upset that “paranoid loons” are throwing a wrench in his plans. Through Second Amendment advocacy and the collective flexing of political muscle. He knows gun control is bad for his party.

    1. And if my thesis about Harry Reid is correct (he wants to be Senate Majority Leader in 2015-6 and this gun grabbing hysteria is making that less and less likely), one might imagine Reid being less than cooperative with Obama on any number of things that aren’t particularly aligned with his or the Democratic Senate Caucus’ interests.

      I’m sure more than a few Democratic Senators have expressed their displease to the White House, plus e.g. the new one from North Dakota going unambiguously public (the proposals are “extreme”, and I’m sure she knows her chances of reelection plummet if anything gets passed).

    2. He knows gun control is bad for his party.

      I don’t disagree, but there are two concerns I have with that statement:

      1) I don’t think he believes that the issue is capable of doing more than temporary harm to his party, or that it would be truly significant – especially with almost a full 2 years before the next elections.

      b) The man is narcissistic enough that I’m not entirely sure he would care if he brought down his entire party, as long as he gets to make his mark on history as the president who passed one of the holy grails of the “progressive” movement.

      iii) In the same vein as “b”, I’m not that sure he cares about the party at all now that his political career is essentially over and he doesn’t have to worry about reelection. If he can get that holy grail of progressivism passed, and the price is the Democrat party, well, he doesn’t really need them anymore, does he? It’s not like destroying them will cost him the next election.

        1. 7 rounds or less- from what we hear no grandfathering of mags. It will make most pistols in the state useless. And as I will reiterate…THIS HAS ALMOST A 100% CHANCE OF PASSING

            1. I’ve often wondered if extreme gun control, like say in Massachusetts after 1974, doesn’t have small but significant economic effects. No one can deny that Silicon Valley totally eclipsed Boston’s Route 128 starting not long after then, and while cultural reasons were one of the strongest factors, they’re all tied together, aren’t they?

              I.e. a state that would go this much further and faster than California (and still is much worse in almost every way I can think of)—well, are we surprised it’s not a fraction as welcoming to wild and crazy entrepreneurs?

              1. I was passing through Reno in ’89, I think, and stopped in a gun shop. There, I overheard a customer looking to buy a couple AK’s, and telling the clerk that he was moving his family and business to NV. He said this was due to the gun ban CA was doing.
                He was driving one of those $0.5 million+ bus conversion motorhomes.
                He is not the only person who relocated that I have heard of. So, yeah, gun laws have some effect, though it might be hard to put a pricetag on it.
                I was offered the option of moving back to NJ, with property, but the gun laws there were a factor in my decision not to do so.

        2. 7 rounds? I’d have to add “Illegal in NY State” stickers to all my gun cases next to the “Illegal in CA” stickers.

          1. That would even outlaw 22LR revolvers, some of which have 8 or 9 chambers!

            I assume this law will apply to Police as well? Right?

            (sarcastically said)

  6. If they track them as good as they tracked the ones going into Mexico we have nothing to fear.

  7. It’s anecdotal, of course. But almost all of my friends are in the “gun” community. I’m active (a board member at one) in multiple R&G clubs.

    I don’t know ANYONE who has gone out and purchased new firearms or more magazines. I know a lot of people that are a bit upset at the ammo and component situation, in that they see the downstream affects on their upcoming competitive seasons and practice.

    So, it is my belief (not researched fact) that a much larger percentage of the gun sales are new gun owners or recent additions to the gun community.

    1. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could be read to mean that enough people are reaching their line in the sand. Or enough are worried.

      I’m sure some will, but I can’t imagine too many people plunking down thousands just to hand them over.

      1. “I can’t imagine too many people plunking down thousands just to hand them over.”

        Read that same line in a book the other day. Didn’t want to hear it in real life.

    2. I bought about 20 new magazines where I could. Didn’t overpay too much but with threats of capacity limits, especially at the state level (MD), better to get them now than get them never.

      I’ve bought firearm components to complete projects I’ve had on the shelf for the same reason.

      It also depends on your location and engagement. On the Maryland Shooters forum I am, activity is quite frenetic. People are buying.

      1. I see lots of attempted selling going on in the PA forum that i frequent, but not a lot of buying.

        I see lots of comments on PA gun shows from forum regulars who bought nothing, but went to laugh at the prices.

        Like I said, anecdotal for me.

        For the most part, the guys I shoot with bought their needs / wants long ago. For the most part, I hear people struggling with “I bought that mag for $10 and I have 60 of them, I could sell it for $45 right now”.

        1. Well, if you have that many STANG and/or PMags and can really get $45 each for them, you ought to sell 10 and send the proceeds to the NRA-ILA or whomever you prefer that’s fighting this. If I had more I’d do that.

    3. I was in Cabelas (Hampburg,PA) this weekend and can second your belief. It was obvious to me that most of the people buying were first timers based on their newbie questions**. It was so obvious to me that I made note of it to my wife. I’m glad I already have what I need. I don’t feel like standing in line or overpaying.

      **I heard more than once “what kind of bullet does it take?”

  8. Im not terribly familiar with constitutional law. Is there any option for judiciary review of executive orders, or something similar ?

    1. Of course. If a unit of the Executive does something not supported by statute the harmed party can contest it on that basis. The trick is to get standing to do it before you’re charged with a felony….

  9. An EO on gun tracking, which would be probably be an order for the ATF to begin recording 4473 data to determine who’s buying what and in what quantity would be a violation of both Congressional law on multiple purchase tracking (which lawsuits are pending on for the southwestern states) and 18 USC 926(a) which explicitly forbids the establishment of a national registry of firearms and/or owners.

    Ammo tracking would be similarly fraught as the law for tracking was repealed in 1986. That is the realm of Congress and they do guard their power to make law from the President.

    I can’t see any EO being legal beyond reiterating or stepped up enforcement of existing law.

    1. The EO on long gun tracking was still issued and the courts did not stay it. A lot of short-term damage can be done by unilateral action from an Executive who doesn’t care about the long-term consequences.

      1. Indeed, but I’d expect stays on EOs that cause real measurable immediate damage, like magazine or ammo import bans (assuming my understanding that these wouldn’t have statutory backing is correct). It even fits into the preliminary injunction model where if I remember correctly, part of the approach is for the judge to assume all the facts are on the other side and then address the question as a matter of law. Which then fits nicely into immediately appealing it on up, since in most cases they’re not supposed to do findings of fact.

    1. Which we could ridicule as not touching the AR-15 ecosystem (much) and therefore the gun used in Newtown, since it’s our indigenous assault rifle, standard Army issue for a half-century. Made In USA and all that, right?

      Now, those of us not fond of direct impingement or trying to kludge pistons onto the AR-15 platform, well….

      1. Imports could be a big issue for standard capacity pistol magazines though. Tons of pistol mags are subcontracted to Mec-Gar in Italy.

        1. I believe you, but it’s not like this is high technology (although it would seem like it sometimes, based on various magazines I’m sure most of us have tried to use that didn’t work very well). There would be disruption until US manufacturers took up the slack … or maybe Mec-Gar would move enough of its equipment over here. We’re a big market.

  11. Obama: “A bunch of loons thinking we are coming for their guns”

    2 seconds later…

    Obama: “We want to ban assault weapons and come for their guns.”

  12. “Gun Tracking”=expansion of the 3310 reporting requirements on all long guns in all states, not just the four border states. It will be feckless just like all their actions.

    1. I don’t think they have statutory authority for that (outside of declaring cheap steel core or almost all the bullet ammo handgun AP, which has already been done, right?). Same for magazines.

      And while it wouldn’t be good, or say, a new contract with ATK for running Lake City where they have to demil any ammo that doesn’t pass instead of selling us the safe but e.g. not entirely well sealed stuff would also be bad, we’d still do OK. 11-12 billion rounds produced for civilian consumption is … well amazing. And more and more foreign companies are setting up shop here in one form or another, e.g. Fiocchi built a plant about 70 miles east of me.

      Hmmm, the natural gas fracking revolution should also be lowering the cost of smokeless powder in the US. E.g. it’s the most common source of hydrogen in the Haber process, which consumes ~ 1-2% of the world’s annual energy supply to fix nitrogen from the air, and that’s used to make nitric acid. Hmmm, doesn’t look like any other feedstock will be affected, e.g. biodiesel has produced a gut of glycerol according to Wikipedia, unless hydrogen sulfide is used to produce a lot of sulfuric acid (used as an agent to pull water out of the reactions that make nitrocellulose (gun cotton) and nitroglycerin).

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