What Obama Should Do Next

The last few months have been some of the most consequential of Barack Obama’s presidency— winning Supreme Court battles that upheld the Affordable Health Care Act and gay rights, to using executive action to reform immigration, and most recently striking an accord between Iran and the P5+1 to limit Iran’s nuclear capability. Obama has made it clear that he will not be a lame duck president, and will make full use of the “fourth quarter” of his presidency. Though many of his recent decisions have been controversial, none have stopped him from continuing his quest to improve the country however he sees fit. This has left many wondering what his next move will be. There appears to be one thorny issue that Obama has left untouched during his presidency, and that he may want to act on before he leaves: gun control.

Gun control is an issue that has often surfaced during Obama’s presidency, with several mass shootings having taken place during his time in office. After this summer’s horrific shooting in Charleston, President Obama remarked, “I’ve had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.” The president is well aware of the problem that there are too many guns that are too easy to get, and is clearly frustrated by Congress’ failure to solve it.

Generally, public sentiment in favor of gun control rises for a few days after a mass shooting and then slowly fades away. Unfortunately, the public does not realize that, on average, 86 Americans die from gun violence every day. That adds up to over 250,000 deaths over the course of Obama’s presidency. Over a quarter of a million human lives destroyed. Yet, almost all of their names go unknown, their lives taken away quicker than the time it took to read this sentence. Gun control may well be the most important public health issue that is plaguing our country, and it will not go away until our country decides to do something about it. To simply ignore the countless statistics that show that gun control laws have been highly effective in many other countries, while our country loses over 31,000 citizens each year to gun violence, is not only ignorant, but morally reprehensible. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “(we have) certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The current epidemic of gun violence clearly prevents the American people’s inalienable right to pursue life.

Most Americans do not fall into the shameful category of those who oppose gun control. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people support common sense gun control reforms like universal background checks, the creation of a federal database to track gun sales, and bans on semi-automatic weapons, assault style weapons, and high-capacity ammunition clips. Sadly, it is primarily because of the effectiveness of the gun lobby, namely the NRA, that gun safety reform has not become a reality. When the majority of citizens support something, it is the duty of the legislature to listen to them, not special interest groups. When special interest groups override the people’s will it is an unfortunate example of our democracy failing us. The gun lobby ensures that Congress maintains the status quo, resulting in the deaths of thousands of citizens. Bills that would have banned assault weapons and created universal background checks were previously defeated in Congress. In 2013, President Obama decided to sign 23 executive orders relating to gun control, however, most were related to doing research and none of them actually put into effect any of the common sense laws that most Americans support. Our country, and the people whose lives have been affected by gun violence, can no longer afford for Congress and the President to stand still. We need change, and the next issue that President Obama must tackle before his fourth quarter ends is gun control.