Tag Archives: President Obama

The list of Obama’s 23 executive orders on gun control

I’m still looking for the one that calls for the confiscation of all legal weapons. (See a brief explanation on the purpose and use of executive orders historically.) It’s also important to remember not everything the president writes is an executive order.

From Yahoo News:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.


3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities. 18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

There is more in the list about mental health than gun ownership. I thought that’s what gun owners were hoping to see. Honestly, I do not know why gun-control advocates are not more upset about these EOs than 2nd amendment defenders. They seem pretty benign to me.

The same is indicated by Forbes:

It does not appear that any of the executive orders would have any impact on the guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals regarding limiting the availability of assault weapons or large ammunition magazines will be proposed for Congressional action. As such, any potential effort to create a constitutional crisis—or the leveling of charges that the White House has overstepped its executive authority—would hold no validity.

C’mon folks, even Slate realizes how wigged out this all became. From political reporter David Weigel:

And also: Me. For a while on Wednesday, I referred to Obama’s “executive orders,” printing the list of actions in full, but muffing the terminology. Why did all of us do that? You know, I think the pre-game panic about the very idea of Obama “signing executive orders” — I think that got into our heads. The result, ironically, was that a lot of people learned that Obama did something very scary — 23 ORDERs, above and beyond the will of Congress! — that he didn’t do, at all. If nominating an ATF director was done by “an executive order,” the Senate wouldn’t have to confirm him.

So which of the lazy journalists got it wrongest? One point goes to Carl Azus, for referring incoherently to “laws that don’t have to be approved by Congress.” Another to Brooke Baldwin, who addes the drama of Obama “signing” these 23 orders as children watched, even though CNN had a camera on Obama as he didn’t do that. But the Marvel No-Prize surely goes to Cavuto, for his scary count-off of “23, 23!” orders that suggest a “president out of control.”

Honesty should have led Weigel to the conclusion most of us have already reached: his profession is overflowing with those both lazy and out of control. It is clear enough to the rest of the world, it should be clear to them.

Thoughts on President Obama’s Afghan war speech

Attacking during the Russian invastion of Afghanistan

Attacking during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan


Last evening President Barack Obama addressed the nation from West Point (His speech can be seen on C-Span). The focus of the last night’s speech by President Barack Obama was a troop surge of an additional 30,000 men and women into Afghanistan until troop withdrawal from Afghanistan begins in 18 months. The president did a very good job in a brief review of why we went into Afghanistan to begin with and a good job of communicating what he, as commander-in-chief, wants to see accomplished by the placement of $30B worth of additional military power in this year alone.

Three objectives:

1. Deny Al-Qaeda a safe haven.
2. Reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government.
3. Strengthen Afghan security forces and government.

Three strategic elements:

1. Pursue a military strategy that will break the Taliban’s momentum and increase Afghan capacity over the next 18 months.
2. Work with our partners and the United Nations to pursue a more effective civilian strategy.
3. Act with full recognition that success in Afghanistan depends on our partnership with Pakistan.

NATO troops in Afghanistan. Photo: Getty Images

NATO troops in Afghanistan. Photo: Getty Images

President Obama responded to three counter arguments he’s already heard:

1. Afghanistan is another Vietnam. He gave three reasons why this is not like ‘Nam, including the fact that Al-Qaeda attacked us from Afghanistan.
2. We cannot leave Afghanistan in it’s current state, but keep only the troops we have. He objects that this would leave us in our current muddled condition.
3. Should not propose our time frame, some calling for an open ended campaign. The president states that we cannot afford a 10-year nation building program.

The president has already taken flack (see FOX News analysts) from not giving specifics as to how these things are going to happen. Frankly, I thought that’s why we have generals on the ground. They have the responsibility to work out the details. 99.9% of Americans are not military strategists and 100% of news anchors are not, therefore, spelling out of such details would not really help me know whether or not such information would help us reach his announced objectives. If the president had given 20 minutes worth of details he would have been derided for making the same mistakes made in Vietnam, to wit, letting politicians fighting the war instead of the military.

Whether or not President Obama has the clout or backbone to see it through will remain to be seen. Nearly a year into his administration, he has famously (as lampooned by Saturday Night Live) not closed Guantanamo though he repeated in this speech his intention to do so, while neglecting many other promises of his campaign (where he stands arm in arm with virtually every other holder of our nation’s top office). Personally, I’m thankful that he has not committed us to a war we cannot afford; heck, we cannot even afford the wars we have. I wonder if Dave Ramsey has been consulted on this…

I was at least glad to hear a reference to the average American making sacrifices, though I fear it is far to little and far to late. World War 2 saw community metal drives, rubber collections, etc, to provide raw materials for the war effort. War bonds were sold for financing the expense. People shut off their electric lights at night for the dual purpose of obscuring potential targets and saving the power. When the War on Terror started, we were famously encouraged to “Go shopping” as if Al-Qaeda would be defeated by the collective re-shoeing of American school kids and a new theater system in every home. That was and remains balderdash.

Being vigilant is a must without question and protection of the citizenry is a God given responsibility of any government. We have reached the point, however, where our economics must catch up to our ability to wage war afar while we fortify protection at home, lest we lose our capacity to do either.

A few specific quotes from last night:

“As president, I refuse to set goals which go beyond our responsibilities, our means or our interests.”

“We cannot simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.”

“Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power.”

“The nation that I’m most interested in building is our own.”

“America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars and conflict…and we can’t count on military might alone.”

“We have forged a new interest with those in the Muslim world.”

“We must draw on the strength of our values…We must promote our values by living them at home.”

“As a country, we are not as young, and perhaps not as innocent, as we were when Roosevelt was president.”