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The President Speaks on Recommendations to Reduce Gun Violence

Published on Jan 4, 2016 by The White House [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYxRlFDqcWM4y7FfpiAN3KQ / http://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse , http://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos ]

President Obama met with his Senior Administration Officials to discuss new ideas and initiatives that can help reduce gun violence in the U.S. January 4, 2016.

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Remarks by the President on Recommendations on Gun Safety

Oval Office
January 04, 2016

2:42 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Happy New Year, everybody. Before the New Year, I mentioned that I had given the charge to my Attorney General, FBI Director, Deputy Director at the ATF, and personnel at my White House to work together to see what more we could do to prevent a scourge of gun violence in this country.

I think everybody here is all too familiar with the statistics. We have tens of thousands of people every single year who are killed by guns. We have suicides that are committed by firearms at a rate that far exceeds other countries. We have a frequency of mass shootings that far exceeds other countries in frequency.

And although it is my strong belief that for us to get our complete arm around the problem Congress needs to act, what I asked my team to do is to see what more we could do to strengthen our enforcement and prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands to make sure that criminals, people who are mentally unstable, those who could pose a danger to themselves or others are less likely to get them.

And I’ve just received back a report from Attorney General Lynch, Director Comey, as well as Deputy Director Brandon about some of the ideas and initiatives that they think can make a difference. And the good news is, is that these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch, but they’re also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support and believe.

So over the next several days, we’ll be rolling out these initiatives. We’ll be making sure that people have a very clear understanding of what can make a difference and what we can do. And although we have to be very clear that this is not going to solve every violent crime in this country, it’s not going to prevent every mass shooting, it’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal, it will potentially save lives and spare families the pain and the extraordinary loss that they’ve suffered as a consequence of a firearm getting in the hands of the wrong people.

I’m also confident that the recommendations that are being made by my team here are ones that are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment and people’s lawful right to bear arms. And we’ve been very careful recognizing that, although we have a strong tradition of gun ownership in this country, that even though it’s who possess firearms for hunting, for self-protection, and for other legitimate reasons, I want to make sure that the wrong people don’t have them for the wrong reasons.

So I want to say how much I appreciate the outstanding work that the team has done. Many of you worked over the holidays to get this set of recommendations to me. And I’m looking forward to speaking to the American people over the next several days in more detail about it.

Thank you very much, everybody.

END

2:46 P.M. EST

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/05/remarks-president-recommendations-gun-safety

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LASty2eYbA4 [with comments], [embedded at] https://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2016/01/04/president-speaks-recommendations-reduce-gun-violence


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The President Announces Commonsense Steps to Keep Guns Out of the Wrong Hands

Published on Jan 5, 2016 by The White House

President Obama speaks on the additional steps he's taking to reduce gun violence and make our communities safer. January 5, 2016.

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Remarks by the President on Common-Sense Gun Safety Reform

East Room
January 05, 2016

11:43 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much.

Mark, I want to thank you for your introduction. I still remember the first time we met, the time we spent together, and the conversation we had about Daniel. And that changed me that day. And my hope, earnestly, has been that it would change the country.

Five years ago this week, a sitting member of Congress and 18 others were shot at, at a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. It wasn’t the first time I had to talk to the nation in response to a mass shooting, nor would it be the last. Fort Hood. Binghamton. Aurora. Oak Creek. Newtown. The Navy Yard. Santa Barbara. Charleston. San Bernardino. Too many.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Too many.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Too many.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Too many.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks to a great medical team and the love of her husband, Mark, my dear friend and colleague, Gabby Giffords, survived. She’s here with us today, with her wonderful mom. (Applause.) Thanks to a great medical team, her wonderful husband, Mark -- who, by the way, the last time I met with Mark -- this is just a small aside -- you may know Mark’s twin brother is in outer space. (Laughter.) He came to the office, and I said, how often are you talking to him? And he says, well, I usually talk to him every day, but the call was coming in right before the meeting so I think I may have not answered his call -- (laughter) -- which made me feel kind of bad. (Laughter.) That’s a long-distance call. (Laughter.) So I told him if his brother, Scott, is calling today, that he should take it. (Laughter.) Turn the ringer on. (Laughter.)

I was there with Gabby when she was still in the hospital, and we didn’t think necessarily at that point that she was going to survive. And that visit right before a memorial -- about an hour later Gabby first opened her eyes. And I remember talking to mom about that. But I know the pain that she and her family have endured these past five years, and the rehabilitation and the work and the effort to recover from shattering injuries.

And then I think of all the Americans who aren’t as fortunate. Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns -- 30,000. Suicides. Domestic violence. Gang shootouts. Accidents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost brothers and sisters, or buried their own children. Many have had to learn to live with a disability, or learned to live without the love of their life.

A number of those people are here today. They can tell you some stories. In this room right here, there are a lot of stories. There’s a lot of heartache. There’s a lot of resilience, there’s a lot of strength, but there’s also a lot of pain. And this is just a small sample.

The United States of America is not the only country on Earth with violent or dangerous people. We are not inherently more prone to violence. But we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency. It doesn't happen in other advanced countries. It’s not even close. And as I’ve said before, somehow we’ve become numb to it and we start thinking that this is normal.

And instead of thinking about how to solve the problem, this has become one of our most polarized, partisan debates -- despite the fact that there’s a general consensus in America about what needs to be done. That’s part of the reason why, on Thursday, I’m going to hold a town hall meeting in Virginia on gun violence. Because my goal here is to bring good people on both sides of this issue together for an open discussion.

I’m not on the ballot again. I’m not looking to score some points. I think we can disagree without impugning other people’s motives or without being disagreeable. We don't need to be talking past one another. But we do have to feel a sense of urgency about it. In Dr. King’s words, we need to feel the “fierce urgency of now.” Because people are dying. And the constant excuses for inaction no longer do, no longer suffice.

That’s why we’re here today. Not to debate the last mass shooting, but to do something to try to prevent the next one. (Applause.) To prove that the vast majority of Americans, even if our voices aren’t always the loudest or most extreme, care enough about a little boy like Daniel to come together and take common-sense steps to save lives and protect more of our children.

Now, I want to be absolutely clear at the start -- and I’ve said this over and over again, this also becomes routine, there is a ritual about this whole thing that I have to do -- I believe in the Second Amendment. It’s there written on the paper. It guarantees a right to bear arms. No matter how many times people try to twist my words around -- I taught constitutional law, I know a little about this -- (applause) -- I get it. But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment.

I mean, think about it. We all believe in the First Amendment, the guarantee of free speech, but we accept that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater. We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people. We cherish our right to privacy, but we accept that you have to go through metal detectors before being allowed to board a plane. It’s not because people like doing that, but we understand that that’s part of the price of living in a civilized society.

And what’s often ignored in this debate is that a majority of gun owners actually agree. A majority of gun owners agree that we can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible, law-breaking feud from inflicting harm on a massive scale.

Today, background checks are required at gun stores. If a father wants to teach his daughter how to hunt, he can walk into a gun store, get a background check, purchase his weapon safely and responsibly. This is not seen as an infringement on the Second Amendment. Contrary to the claims of what some gun rights proponents have suggested, this hasn’t been the first step in some slippery slope to mass confiscation. Contrary to claims of some presidential candidates, apparently, before this meeting, this is not a plot to take away everybody’s guns. You pass a background check; you purchase a firearm.

The problem is some gun sellers have been operating under a different set of rules. A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the Internet with no background check, no questions asked. A recent study found that about one in 30 people looking to buy guns on one website had criminal records -- one out of 30 had a criminal record. We’re talking about individuals convicted of serious crimes -- aggravated assault, domestic violence, robbery, illegal gun possession. People with lengthy criminal histories buying deadly weapons all too easily. And this was just one website within the span of a few months.

So we’ve created a system in which dangerous people are allowed to play by a different set of rules than a responsible gun owner who buys his or her gun the right way and subjects themselves to a background check. That doesn’t make sense. Everybody should have to abide by the same rules. Most Americans and gun owners agree. And that’s what we tried to change three years ago, after 26 Americans -– including 20 children -– were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Two United States Senators -– Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, both gun owners, both strong defenders of our Second Amendment rights, both with “A” grades from the NRA –- that’s hard to get -- worked together in good faith, consulting with folks like our Vice President, who has been a champion on this for a long time, to write a common-sense compromise bill that would have required virtually everyone who buys a gun to get a background check. That was it. Pretty common-sense stuff. Ninety percent of Americans supported that idea. Ninety percent of Democrats in the Senate voted for that idea. But it failed because 90 percent of Republicans in the Senate voted against that idea.

How did this become such a partisan issue? Republican President George W. Bush once said, “I believe in background checks at gun shows or anywhere to make sure that guns don’t get into the hands of people that shouldn’t have them.” Senator John McCain introduced a bipartisan measure to address the gun show loophole, saying, “We need this amendment because criminals and terrorists have exploited and are exploiting this very obvious loophole in our gun safety laws.” Even the NRA used to support expanded background checks. And by the way, most of its members still do. Most Republican voters still do.

How did we get here? How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?

Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. I reject that thinking. (Applause.) We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.

Some of you may recall, at the same time that Sandy Hook happened, a disturbed person in China took a knife and tried to kill -- with a knife -- a bunch of children in China. But most of them survived because he didn’t have access to a powerful weapon. We maybe can’t save everybody, but we could save some. Just as we don’t prevent all traffic accidents but we take steps to try to reduce traffic accidents.

As Ronald Reagan once said, if mandatory background checks could save more lives, “it would be well worth making it the law of the land.” The bill before Congress three years ago met that test. Unfortunately, too many senators failed theirs. (Applause.)

In fact, we know that background checks make a difference. After Connecticut passed a law requiring background checks and gun safety courses, gun deaths decreased by 40 percent -- 40 percent. (Applause.) Meanwhile, since Missouri repealed a law requiring comprehensive background checks and purchase permits, gun deaths have increased to almost 50 percent higher than the national average. One study found, unsurprisingly, that criminals in Missouri now have easier access to guns.

And the evidence tells us that in states that require background checks, law-abiding Americans don’t find it any harder to purchase guns whatsoever. Their guns have not been confiscated. Their rights have not been infringed.

And that’s just the information we have access to. With more research, we could further improve gun safety. Just as with more research, we’ve reduced traffic fatalities enormously over the last 30 years. We do research when cars, food, medicine, even toys harm people so that we make them safer. And you know what -- research, science -- those are good things. They work. (Laughter and applause.) They do.

But think about this. When it comes to an inherently deadly weapon -- nobody argues that guns are potentially deadly -- weapons that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, Congress actually voted to make it harder for public health experts to conduct research into gun violence; made it harder to collect data and facts and develop strategies to reduce gun violence. Even after San Bernardino, they’ve refused to make it harder for terror suspects who can’t get on a plane to buy semi-automatic weapons. That’s not right. That can't be right.

So the gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage. (Applause.) We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom. (Applause.)

Now, I want to be clear. Congress still needs to act. The folks in this room will not rest until Congress does. (Applause.) Because once Congress gets on board with common-sense gun safety measures we can reduce gun violence a whole lot more. But we also can't wait. Until we have a Congress that’s in line with the majority of Americans, there are actions within my legal authority that we can take to help reduce gun violence and save more lives -– actions that protect our rights and our kids.

After Sandy Hook, Joe and I worked together with our teams and we put forward a whole series of executive actions to try to tighten up the existing rules and systems that we had in place. But today, we want to take it a step further. So let me outline what we're going to be doing.

Number one, anybody in the business of selling firearms must get a license and conduct background checks, or be subject to criminal prosecutions. (Applause.) It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing it over the Internet or at a gun show. It’s not where you do it, but what you do.

We’re also expanding background checks to cover violent criminals who try to buy some of the most dangerous firearms by hiding behind trusts and corporations and various cutouts.

We're also taking steps to make the background check system more efficient. Under the guidance of Jim Comey and the FBI, our Deputy Director Tom Brandon at ATF, we’re going to hire more folks to process applications faster, and we’re going to bring an outdated background check system into the 21st century. (Applause.)

And these steps will actually lead to a smoother process for law-abiding gun owners, a smoother process for responsible gun dealers, a stronger process for protecting the people from -- the public from dangerous people. So that's number one.

Number two, we’re going to do everything we can to ensure the smart and effective enforcement of gun safety laws that are already on the books, which means we're going to add 200 more ATF agents and investigators. We're going to require firearms dealers to report more lost or stolen guns on a timely basis. We're working with advocates to protect victims of domestic abuse from gun violence, where too often -- (applause) -- where too often, people are not getting the protection that they need.

Number three, we're going to do more to help those suffering from mental illness get the help that they need. (Applause.) High-profile mass shootings tend to shine a light on those few mentally unstable people who inflict harm on others. But the truth is, is that nearly two in three gun deaths are from suicides. So a lot of our work is to prevent people from hurting themselves.

That’s why we made sure that the Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare -- (laughter and applause) -- that law made sure that treatment for mental health was covered the same as treatment for any other illness. And that’s why we’re going to invest $500 million to expand access to treatment across the country. (Applause.)

It’s also why we’re going to ensure that federal mental health records are submitted to the background check system, and remove barriers that prevent states from reporting relevant information. If we can continue to de-stigmatize mental health issues, get folks proper care, and fill gaps in the background check system, then we can spare more families the pain of losing a loved one to suicide.

And for those in Congress who so often rush to blame mental illness for mass shootings as a way of avoiding action on guns, here’s your chance to support these efforts. Put your money where your mouth is. (Applause.)

Number four, we’re going to boost gun safety technology. Today, many gun injuries and deaths are the result of legal guns that were stolen or misused or discharged accidentally. In 2013 alone, more than 500 people lost their lives to gun accidents –- and that includes 30 children younger than five years old. In the greatest, most technologically advanced nation on Earth, there is no reason for this. We need to develop new technologies that make guns safer. If we can set it up so you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do the same thing for our guns? (Applause.) If there’s an app that can help us find a missing tablet -- which happens to me often the older I get -- (laughter) -- if we can do it for your iPad, there’s no reason we can’t do it with a stolen gun. If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin, we should make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun. (Applause.) Right?

So we’re going to advance research. We’re going to work with the private sector to update firearms technology.

And some gun retailers are already stepping up by refusing to finalize a purchase without a complete background check, or by refraining from selling semi-automatic weapons or high-capacity magazines. And I hope that more retailers and more manufacturers join them -- because they should care as much as anybody about a product that now kills almost as many Americans as car accidents.

I make this point because none of us can do this alone. I think Mark made that point earlier. All of us should be able to work together to find a balance that declares the rest of our rights are also important -- Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. And we have to be able to balance them. Because our right to worship freely and safely –- that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina. (Applause.) And that was denied Jews in Kansas City. And that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill, and Sikhs in Oak Creek. (Applause.) They had rights, too. (Applause.)

Our right to peaceful assembly -– that right was robbed from moviegoers in Aurora and Lafayette. Our unalienable right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -– those rights were stripped from college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first-graders in Newtown. First-graders. And from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun.

Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day. (Applause.)

So all of us need to demand a Congress brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby’s lies. All of us need to stand up and protect its citizens. All of us need to demand governors and legislatures and businesses do their part to make our communities safer. We need the wide majority of responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time this happens and feel like your views are not being properly represented to join with us to demand something better. (Applause.)

And we need voters who want safer gun laws, and who are disappointed in leaders who stand in their way, to remember come election time. (Applause.)

I mean, some of this is just simple math. Yes, the gun lobby is loud and it is organized in defense of making it effortless for guns to be available for anybody, any time. Well, you know what, the rest of us, we all have to be just as passionate. We have to be just as organized in defense of our kids. This is not that complicated. The reason Congress blocks laws is because they want to win elections. And if you make it hard for them to win an election if they block those laws, they’ll change course, I promise you. (Applause.)

And, yes, it will be hard, and it won’t happen overnight. It won’t happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency. But a lot of things don’t happen overnight. A woman’s right to vote didn’t happen overnight. The liberation of African Americans didn’t happen overnight. LGBT rights -- that was decades’ worth of work. So just because it’s hard, that’s no excuse not to try.

And if you have any doubt as to why you should feel that “fierce urgency of now,” think about what happened three weeks ago. Zaevion Dobson was a sophomore at Fulton High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. He played football; beloved by his classmates and his teachers. His own mayor called him one of their city’s success stories. The week before Christmas, he headed to a friend’s house to play video games. He wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. He hadn’t made a bad decision. He was exactly where any other kid would be. Your kid. My kids. And then gunmen started firing. And Zaevion -- who was in high school, hadn’t even gotten started in life -- dove on top of three girls to shield them from the bullets. And he was shot in the head. And the girls were spared. He gave his life to save theirs –- an act of heroism a lot bigger than anything we should ever expect from a 15-year-old. “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

We are not asked to do what Zaevion Dobson did. We’re not asked to have shoulders that big; a heart that strong; reactions that quick. I’m not asking people to have that same level of courage, or sacrifice, or love. But if we love our kids and care about their prospects, and if we love this country and care about its future, then we can find the courage to vote. We can find the courage to get mobilized and organized. We can find the courage to cut through all the noise and do what a sensible country would do.

That’s what we’re doing today. And tomorrow, we should do more. And we should do more the day after that. And if we do, we’ll leave behind a nation that’s stronger than the one we inherited and worthy of the sacrifice of a young man like Zaevion. (Applause.)

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. Thank you. God bless America. (Applause.)

END

12:20 P.M. EST

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/05/remarks-president-common-sense-gun-safety-reform

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj_3M_RvKVY [with comments], [embedded at] https://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2016/01/05/president-announces-commonsense-steps-keep-guns-out-wrong-hands , https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/04/live-updates-what-president-doing-keep-guns-out-wrong-hands


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FACT SHEET: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities Safer

January 05, 2016

Gun violence has taken a heartbreaking toll on too many communities across the country. Over the past decade in America, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence—and millions more have been the victim of assaults, robberies, and other crimes involving a gun. Many of these crimes were committed by people who never should have been able to purchase a gun in the first place. Over the same period, hundreds of thousands of other people in our communities committed suicide with a gun and nearly half a million people suffered other gun injuries. Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been shot to death protecting their communities. And too many children are killed or injured by firearms every year, often by accident. The vast majority of Americans—including the vast majority of gun owners—believe we must take sensible steps to address these horrible tragedies.

The President and Vice President are committed to using every tool at the Administration’s disposal to reduce gun violence. Some of the gaps in our country’s gun laws can only be fixed through legislation, which is why the President continues to call on Congress to pass the kind of commonsense gun safety reforms supported by a majority of the American people. And while Congress has repeatedly failed to take action and pass laws that would expand background checks and reduce gun violence, today, building on the significant steps that have already been taken over the past several years, the Administration is announcing a series of commonsense executive actions designed to:

1. Keep guns out of the wrong hands through background checks.

• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is making clear that it doesn’t matter where you conduct your business—from a store, at gun shows, or over the Internet: If you’re in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks.

• ATF is finalizing a rule to require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust, corporation, or other legal entity.

• Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has sent a letter to States highlighting the importance of receiving complete criminal history records and criminal dispositions, information on persons disqualified because of a mental illness, and qualifying crimes of domestic violence.

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is overhauling the background check system to make it more effective and efficient. The envisioned improvements include processing background checks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and improving notification of local authorities when certain prohibited persons unlawfully attempt to buy a gun. The FBI will hire more than 230 additional examiners and other staff to help process these background checks.

2. Make our communities safer from gun violence.

• The Attorney General convened a call with U.S. Attorneys around the country to direct federal prosecutors to continue to focus on smart and effective enforcement of our gun laws.

• The President’s FY2017 budget will include funding for 200 new ATF agents and investigators to help enforce our gun laws.

• ATF has established an Internet Investigation Center to track illegal online firearms trafficking and is dedicating $4 million and additional personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network.

• ATF is finalizing a rule to ensure that dealers who ship firearms notify law enforcement if their guns are lost or stolen in transit.

• The Attorney General issued a memo encouraging every U.S. Attorney’s Office to renew domestic violence outreach efforts.

3. Increase mental health treatment and reporting to the background check system.

• The Administration is proposing a new $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care.

• The Social Security Administration has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons.

• The Department of Health and Human Services is finalizing a rule to remove unnecessary legal barriers preventing States from reporting relevant information about people prohibited from possessing a gun for specific mental health reasons.

4. Shape the future of gun safety technology.

• The President has directed the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology.

• The President has also directed the departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.

Congress should support the President’s request for resources for 200 new ATF agents and investigators to help enforce our gun laws, as well as a new $500 million investment to address mental health issues.

Because we all must do our part to keep our communities safe, the Administration is also calling on States and local governments to do all they can to keep guns out of the wrong hands and reduce gun violence. It is also calling on private-sector leaders to follow the lead of other businesses that have taken voluntary steps to make it harder for dangerous individuals to get their hands on a gun. In the coming weeks, the Administration will engage with manufacturers, retailers, and other private-sector leaders to explore what more they can do.

New Actions by the Federal Government

Keeping Guns Out of the Wrong Hands Through Background Checks

The most important thing we can do to prevent gun violence is to make sure those who would commit violent acts cannot get a firearm in the first place. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which was created by Congress to prevent guns from being sold to prohibited individuals, is a critical tool in achieving that goal. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the background check system has prevented more than 2 million guns from getting into the wrong hands. We know that making the system more efficient, and ensuring that it has all appropriate records about prohibited purchasers, will help enhance public safety. Today, the Administration is announcing the following executive actions to ensure that all gun dealers are licensed and run background checks, and to strengthen the background check system itself:

• Clarify that it doesn’t matter where you conduct your business—from a store, at gun shows, or over the Internet: If you’re in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks. Background checks have been shown to keep guns out of the wrong hands, but too many gun sales—particularly online and at gun shows—occur without basic background checks. Today, the Administration took action to ensure that anyone who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms is licensed and conducts background checks on their customers. Consistent with court rulings on this issue, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has clarified the following principles:

- A person can be engaged in the business of dealing in firearms regardless of the location in which firearm transactions are conducted. For example, a person can be engaged in the business of dealing in firearms even if the person only conducts firearm transactions at gun shows or through the Internet. Those engaged in the business of dealing in firearms who utilize the Internet or other technologies must obtain a license, just as a dealer whose business is run out of a traditional brick-and-mortar store.

- Quantity and frequency of sales are relevant indicators. There is no specific threshold number of firearms purchased or sold that triggers the licensure requirement. But it is important to note that even a few transactions, when combined with other evidence, can be sufficient to establish that a person is “engaged in the business.” For example, courts have upheld convictions for dealing without a license when as few as two firearms were sold or when only one or two transactions took place, when other factors also were present.

- There are criminal penalties for failing to comply with these requirements. A person who willfully engages in the business of dealing in firearms without the required license is subject to criminal prosecution and can be sentenced up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Dealers are also subject to penalties for failing to conduct background checks before completing a sale.

• Require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust or corporation. The National Firearms Act imposes restrictions on sales of some of the most dangerous weapons, such as machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. But because of outdated regulations, individuals have been able to avoid the background check requirement by applying to acquire these firearms and other items through trusts, corporations, and other legal entities. In fact, the number of these applications has increased significantly over the years—from fewer than 900 applications in the year 2000 to more than 90,000 applications in 2014. ATF is finalizing a rule that makes clear that people will no longer be able to avoid background checks by buying NFA guns and other items through a trust or corporation.

• Ensure States are providing records to the background check system, and work cooperatively with jurisdictions to improve reporting. Congress has prohibited specific categories of people from buying guns—from convicted felons to users of illegal drugs to individuals convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence. In the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, Congress also created incentives for States to make as many relevant records as possible accessible to NICS. Over the past three years, States have increased the number of records they make accessible by nearly 70 percent. To further encourage this reporting, the Attorney General has written a letter to States highlighting the importance of receiving complete criminal history records and criminal dispositions, information on persons disqualified for mental health reasons, and qualifying crimes of domestic violence. The Administration will begin a new dialogue with States to ensure the background check system is as robust as possible, which is a public safety imperative.

• Make the background check system more efficient and effective. In 2015, NICS received more than 22.2 million background check requests, an average of more than 63,000 per day. By law, a gun dealer can complete a sale to a customer if the background check comes back clean or has taken more than three days to complete. But features of the current system, which was built in the 1990s, are outdated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will take the following steps to ensure NICS operates more efficiently and effectively to keep guns out of the wrong hands:

- FBI will hire more than 230 additional NICS examiners and other staff members to assist with processing mandatory background checks. This new hiring will begin immediately and increase the existing workforce by 50 percent. This will reduce the strain on the NICS system and improve its ability to identify dangerous people who are prohibited from buying a gun before the transfer of a firearm is completed.

- FBI has partnered with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to modernize NICS. Although NICS has been routinely upgraded since its launch in 1998, the FBI is committed to making the system more efficient and effective, so that as many background checks as possible are fully processed within the three-day period before a dealer can legally sell a gun even if a background check is not complete. The improvements envisioned by FBI and USDS include processing background checks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to improve overall response time and improving notification of local authorities when certain prohibited persons unlawfully attempt to purchase a firearm.

Making Our Communities Safer from Gun Violence

In order to improve public safety, we need to do more to ensure smart and effective enforcement of our gun laws and make sure that criminals and other prohibited persons cannot get their hands on lost or stolen weapons. The Administration is therefore taking the following actions:

• Ensure smart and effective enforcement of our gun laws. In a call earlier today, the Attorney General discussed the importance of today’s announcements and directed the Nation’s 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country to continue to focus their resources—as they have for the past several years under the Department’s Smart on Crime initiative—on the most impactful cases, including those targeting violent offenders, illegal firearms traffickers, and dangerous individuals who bypass the background check system to acquire weapons illegally. During the call, the Attorney General also emphasized ongoing initiatives to assist communities in combating violent crime, including ATF’s efforts to target the “worst of the worst” gun crimes. These efforts will also complement the following actions announced today:

- The President’s budget for FY2017 will include funding for 200 new ATF agents and investigators who can help enforce our gun laws, including the measures announced today. Strategic and impactful enforcement will help take violent criminals off the street, deter other unlawful activity, and prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.

- ATF is dedicating $4 million and additional personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). The NIBIN database includes ballistic evidence that can be used by analysts and investigators to link violent crimes across jurisdictions and to track down shooters who prey on our communities. In February 2016, ATF is standing up the National NIBIN Correlation and Training Center—which will ultimately provide NIBIN matching services at one national location, rather than requiring local police departments to do that work themselves. The Center will provide consistent and capable correlation services, making connections between ballistic crime scene evidence and crime guns locally, regionally, and nationally. These enhancements will support ATF’s crime gun intelligence and enforcement efforts, particularly in communities most affected by violent crime.

- ATF has established an Internet Investigations Center (IIC) staffed with federal agents, legal counsel, and investigators to track illegal online firearms trafficking and to provide actionable intelligence to agents in the field. The IIC has already identified a number of significant traffickers operating over the Internet. This work has led to prosecutions against individuals or groups using the “dark net” to traffic guns to criminals or attempting to buy firearms illegally online.

• Ensure that dealers notify law enforcement about the theft or loss of their guns. Under current law, federal firearms dealers and other licensees must report when a gun from their inventory has been lost or stolen. The regulations are ambiguous, however, about who has this responsibility when a gun is lost or stolen in transit. Many lost and stolen guns end up being used in crimes. Over the past five years, an average of 1,333 guns recovered in criminal investigations each year were traced back to a licensee that claimed it never received the gun even though it was never reported lost or stolen either. Today, ATF issued a final rule clarifying that the licensee shipping a gun is responsible for notifying law enforcement upon discovery that it was lost or stolen in transit.

• Issue a memo directing every U.S. Attorney’s Office to renew domestic violence outreach efforts. In the event of an emergency, victims of domestic violence should call 911 or otherwise contact state or local law enforcement officials, who have a broader range of options for responding to these crimes. To provide an additional resource for state, local, and tribal law enforcement and community groups focused on domestic violence, the Attorney General is issuing a memo directing U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country to engage in renewed efforts to coordinate with these groups to help combat domestic violence and to prevent prohibited persons from obtaining firearms.

Increase Mental Health Treatment and Reporting to the Background Check System

The Administration is committed to improving care for Americans experiencing mental health issues. In the last seven years, our country has made extraordinary progress in expanding mental health coverage for millions of Americans. This includes the Affordable Care Act’s end to insurance company discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, required coverage of mental health and substance use disorder services in the individual and small group markets, and an expansion of mental health and substance use disorder parity policies, all of which are estimated to help more than 60 million Americans. About 13.5 million more Americans have gained Medicaid coverage since October 2013, significantly improving access to mental health care. And thanks to more than $100 million in funding from the Affordable Care Act, community health centers have expanded behavioral health services for nearly 900,000 people nationwide over the past two years. We must continue to remove the stigma around mental illness and its treatment—and make sure that these individuals and their families know they are not alone. While individuals with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, incidents of violence continue to highlight a crisis in America’s mental health system. In addition to helping people get the treatment they need, we must make sure we keep guns out of the hands of those who are prohibited by law from having them. Today, the Administration is announcing the following steps to help achieve these goals:

• Dedicate significant new resources to increase access to mental health care. Despite our recent significant gains, less than half of children and adults with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need. To address this, the Administration is proposing a new $500 million investment to help engage individuals with serious mental illness in care, improve access to care by increasing service capacity and the behavioral health workforce, and ensure that behavioral health care systems work for everyone. This effort would increase access to mental health services to protect the health of children and communities, prevent suicide, and promote mental health as a top priority.

• Include information from the Social Security Administration in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm. Current law prohibits individuals from buying a gun if, because of a mental health issue, they are either a danger to themselves or others or are unable to manage their own affairs. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to ensure that appropriate information in its records is reported to NICS. The reporting that SSA, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is expected to require will cover appropriate records of the approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment, or who have been found by a state or federal court to be legally incompetent. The rulemaking will also provide a mechanism for people to seek relief from the federal prohibition on possessing a firearm for reasons related to mental health.

• Remove unnecessary legal barriers preventing States from reporting relevant information to the background check system. Although States generally report criminal history information to NICS, many continue to report little information about individuals who are prohibited by Federal law from possessing or receiving a gun for specific mental health reasons. Some State officials raised concerns about whether such reporting would be precluded by the Privacy Rule issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Today, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule expressly permitting certain HIPAA covered entities to provide to the NICS limited demographic and other necessary information about these individuals.

Shaping the Future of Gun Safety Technology

Tens of thousands of people are injured or killed by firearms every year—in many cases by guns that were sold legally but then stolen, misused, or discharged accidentally. Developing and promoting technology that would help prevent these tragedies is an urgent priority. America has done this in many other areas—from making cars safer to improving the tablets and phones we use every day. We know that researchers and engineers are already exploring ideas for improving gun safety and the tracing of lost or stolen guns. Millions of dollars have already been invested to support research into concepts that range from fingerprint scanners to radio-frequency identification to microstamping technology.

As the single largest purchaser of firearms in the country, the Federal Government has a unique opportunity to advance this research and ensure that smart gun technology becomes a reality—and it is possible to do so in a way that makes the public safer and is consistent with the Second Amendment. Today, the President is taking action to further this work in the following way:

• Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security to take two important steps to promote smart gun technology.

- Increase research and development efforts. The Presidential Memorandum directs the departments to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology that would reduce the frequency of accidental discharge or unauthorized use of firearms, and improve the tracing of lost or stolen guns. Within 90 days, these agencies must prepare a report outlining a research-and-development strategy designed to expedite the real-world deployment of such technology for use in practice.

- Promote the use and acquisition of new technology. The Presidential Memorandum also directs the departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety. In connection with these efforts, the departments will consult with other agencies that acquire firearms and take appropriate steps to consider whether including such technology in specifications for acquisition of firearms would be consistent with operational needs.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/05/fact-sheet-new-executive-actions-reduce-gun-violence-and-make-our


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Full Show: Full Breakdown Of Obama's Gun Grab - 01-05-16

Published on Jan 5, 2016 by The Alex Jones Channel [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]

On this Tuesday, January 5 edition of the Alex Jones Show we cover the latest on the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, the cover-up by German authorities of mass sexual assault at Cologne train station on New Years Eve, the possibility of a severe economic slump in the near to medium term, a demand by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid that he be allowed to pocket over $600,000 for retirement from a slush fund, and record firearms sales as Obama readies unconstitutional executive orders aimed at the Second Amendment. On today’s broadcast we talk with journalist and author Wayne Madsen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcoroFfmc6I [with comments]


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Full Show: Impeach Obama or America is Dead - 01/06/2016

Published on Jan 6, 2016 by The Alex Jones Channel

On the Wednesday, January 6 edition of the Alex Jones Show, we break down reactions to Obama's unilateral assault on gun rights, with presidential candidate Donald Trump asserting, “I will not let Obama screw around with the Second Amendment.” And the mayor of a city in Germany is coming under pressure for telling women to keep Muslim migrant rapists at an “arms length.” On today's show, British author David Icke discusses key world events and the Australian government's move to ban him from speaking in the country. We'll also take a close look at the standoff in Oregon with Joe Biggs, North Korea's hydrogen bomb and take your calls on this worldwide transmission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cehcPzI6b4E [with comments]


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Alex Jones Predicts Nuclear False Flag 48 Hrs After His Death

Published on Aug 15, 2013 by The Alex Jones Channel

Alex covers headlines in the news including the food stamp surfer who is achieving his rock and roll dreams with your tax money, a US General stating in a public meeting in NH that the military is training to fight the public and the bombshell news of the mainstream media attacking and defaming Infowars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQuHB1iQWIo [with comments]


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Alex Jones Has Obama on Air Meltdown

Published on Aug 13, 2013 by The Alex Jones Channel

Alex discusses the purposeful racism being injected by the media into society to cause a rift in the public. Alex continues on the topic of the Globalist agenda to cause division amongst the people through media and to bankrupt the economy of the world, and Alex creates "Obama-Lector" the president who tells you the truth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTBUeaxZLNE [with comments]


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Obama Responds To Alex Jones

Published on Jan 16, 2013 by The Alex Jones Channel

http://www.infowars.com/other-tyrants-who-have-used-children-as-props/

Obama's shameless exploitation of children as set pieces is hardly new or original. In fact, tyrants and dictators have used kids as props down through the ages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw7MvYFsQNY [with (over 16,000) comments]


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John Yoo wants to talk about federal ‘overreactions’


In this June 26, 2008 file photo John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Susan Walsh, File/AP Photo

By Steve Benen
01/07/16 08:40 AM

UC Berkeley’s John Yoo, a rather important figure from the Bush/Cheney Justice Department, wrote an item [ http://www.fed-soc.org/blog/detail/obamas-gun-rules-and-the-constitution ] for the Federalist Society yesterday on President Obama’s new measures on gun policy. Not surprisingly, the controversial lawyer wasn’t impressed.

But it’s the way in which Yoo criticized the administration’s policy that was almost amusing, in a lacking-self-awareness kind of way (via Sam Stein [ https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/684832697517211649 ]).

Supporters of Second Amendment rights should have little difficulty challenging President Obama’s new executive orders to restrict gun sales. There should be no problems for plaintiffs to enter federal court. […]

Such a case would prompt not just a good challenge to the scope of the President’s authority to interpret the law, on which the Supreme Court has been signaling that it may shift away from deference to the executive branch, but also the scope of the Second Amendment and the federal government’s regulatory powers…. In his regulatory overreaction to recent shootings, Obama may begin the erosion of the powers of his treasured welfare state.

Right off the bat, it’s curious that Yoo would take aim at the president’s “executive orders,” since the new White House reforms don’t include [ https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/04/live-updates-what-president-doing-keep-guns-out-wrong-hands ] any executive orders. Given Yoo’s role as a legal scholar, it’s a little surprising he’d get such a basic detail wrong.

It’s also odd that Yoo would be so eager to see a legal challenge to a policy that, according to the NRA [ http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-goes-around-gop-takes-new-steps-prevent-gun-deaths ], doesn’t really do much of anything. On Monday, the group’s lawyers were ready to pounce [ http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/264735-obama-nra-on-collision-course ] on the administration, but notice there’s been little chatter about a court case since.

But even if we put these details aside, it’s the broader context that’s worth appreciating: does John Yoo, of all people, really want to have a conversation about federal “overreaction” to violence?

As longtime readers may recall, Yoo is perhaps best known [ http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/even-john-yoo-has-his-limits ] as the principal author of the Bush/Cheney “torture memos” – defending the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” – during Yoo’s tenure at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The idea that President Obama’s modest, incremental administrative tweaks to existing law represent an “overreaction” is itself hard to take seriously, but perhaps the right can find someone other than Yoo to make the argument?

©2016 NBCNews.com (emphasis in original)

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/john-yoo-wants-talk-about-federal-overreactions [with comments]


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Executive Actions On Gun Control Brings Censure Resolution For President Obama

Jan 07, 2016
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2016/01/07/executive-actions-on-gun-control-brings-censure-resolution-for-president-obama-n2101109 [with comments]


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Full Show: Obama Is Raping Our Country - 01/07/2016

Published on Jan 7, 2016 by The Alex Jones Channel

On this Thursday, January 7 edition of the Alex Jones Show, we look into the 75 documented times President Obama broke the law during his presidency amid calls for his impeachment after he enacted gun control laws outside of Congress. We also discuss the ongoing collapse of the economy as trillions vanish overnight from global stock markets and how this could be just as bad as the 2008 financial crisis. Financial expert Max Keiser explains what's really going on with the economy and geopolitical expert Joel Skousen explains the economy's effects on global war tensions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOqxcpUFTP4 [with comments]


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Barack Obama: Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility


Alex Nabaum

By BARACK OBAMA
JAN. 7, 2016

THE epidemic of gun violence in our country is a crisis. Gun deaths and injuries constitute one of the greatest threats to public health and to the safety of the American people. Every year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. Suicides. Domestic violence. Gang shootouts. Accidents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost brothers and sisters, or buried their own children. We’re the only advanced nation on earth that sees this kind of mass violence with this frequency.

A national crisis like this demands a national response. Reducing gun violence will be hard. It’s clear that common-sense gun reform won’t happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency. Still, there are steps we can take now to save lives. And all of us — at every level of government, in the private sector and as citizens — have to do our part.

We all have a responsibility.

On Tuesday, I announced new steps I am taking within my legal authority to protect the American people and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. They include making sure that anybody engaged in the business of selling firearms conducts background checks, expanding access to mental health treatment and improving gun safety technology. These actions won’t prevent every act of violence, or save every life — but if even one life is spared, they will be well worth the effort.

Even as I continue to take every action possible as president, I will also take every action I can as a citizen. I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform. And if the 90 percent of Americans [ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbsnyt-poll-gop-voters-have-deep-concerns-about-government/ ] who do support common-sense gun reforms join me, we will elect the leadership we deserve.

All of us have a role to play — including gun owners. We need the vast majority of responsible gun owners who grieve with us after every mass shooting, who support common-sense gun safety and who feel that their views are not being properly represented, to stand with us and demand that leaders heed the voices of the people they are supposed to represent.

The gun industry also needs to do its part. And that starts with manufacturers.

As Americans, we hold consumer goods to high standards to keep our families and communities safe. Cars have to meet safety and emissions requirements. Food has to be clean and safe. We will not end the cycle of gun violence until we demand that the gun industry take simple actions to make its products safer as well. If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin, we should also make sure she can’t pull the trigger of a gun.

Yet today, the gun industry is almost entirely unaccountable. Thanks to the gun lobby’s decades of efforts, Congress has blocked our consumer products safety experts from being able to require that firearms have even the most basic safety measures. They’ve made it harder for the government’s public health experts to conduct research on gun violence. They’ve guaranteed that manufacturers enjoy virtual immunity from lawsuits, which means that they can sell lethal products and rarely face consequences. As parents, we wouldn’t put up with this if we were talking about faulty car seats. Why should we tolerate it for products — guns — that kill so many children each year?

At a time when manufacturers are enjoying soaring profits, they should invest in research to make guns smarter and safer, like developing microstamping for ammunition, which can help trace bullets found at crime scenes to specific guns. And like all industries, gun manufacturers owe it to their customers to be better corporate citizens by selling weapons only to responsible actors.

Ultimately, this is about all of us. We are not asked to perform the heroism of 15-year-old Zaevion Dobson [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/us/obama-zaevion-dobson-hero-football-knoxille.html ] from Tennessee, who was killed before Christmas while shielding his friends from gunfire. We are not asked to display the grace of the countless victims’ families who have dedicated themselves to ending this senseless violence. But we must find the courage and the will to mobilize, organize and do what a strong, sensible country does in response to a crisis like this one.

All of us need to demand leaders brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby’s lies. All of us need to stand up and protect our fellow citizens. All of us need to demand that governors, mayors and our representatives in Congress do their part.

Change will be hard. It won’t happen overnight. But securing a woman’s right to vote didn’t happen overnight. The liberation of African-Americans didn’t happen overnight. Advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans has taken decades’ worth of work.

Those moments represent American democracy, and the American people, at our best. Meeting this crisis of gun violence will require the same relentless focus, over many years, at every level. If we can meet this moment with that same audacity, we will achieve the change we seek. And we will leave a stronger, safer country to our children.

Barack Obama is president of the United States.

Related in Opinion

Editorial: End the Gun Epidemic in America
DEC. 4, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/opinion/end-the-gun-epidemic-in-america.html

First Time at a Gun Show
DEC. 14, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/opinion/first-time-at-a-gun-show.html

Gun Control and White Terror
JAN. 7, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/opinion/gun-control-and-white-terror.html

Wanted: Straight Shooters
JAN. 8, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/09/opinion/wanted-straight-shooters.html

Room for Debate: Making Gun Use Safer
JAN. 10, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/10/making-gun-use-safer

Focus on Illegal Guns
JAN. 11, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/11/opinion/focus-on-illegal-guns.html

Related Coverage

Obama Pleads for Stricter Gun Laws and Faces Tough Questioning
JAN. 7, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/us/politics/obama-gun-control-town-hall-cnn.html

© 2016 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/opinion/president-barack-obama-guns-are-our-shared-responsibility.html [with comments]


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President Barack Obama CNN "Guns In America" Town Hall

Published on Jan 7, 2016 by Ari Bernays [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7p0dEsVx2eq4JcNad0-Zuw , http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7p0dEsVx2eq4JcNad0-Zuw/videos ]

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Remarks by the President at CNN "Guns In America" Town Hall

George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
January 07, 2016

8:00 P.M. EST

MR. COOPER: Good evening from George Mason University here in Fairfax, Virginia. We are here tonight to talk about one of the most divisive issues in America today -- guns. Their protection is enshrined in the Constitution, in the Second Amendment, and gun ownership is an integral part of American history and culture.

There are some 30,000 gun deaths in America each year. Two-thirds of them are suicides; one-third of them are homicides. So the question we want to confront tonight is how you find a balance between protecting the rights of American citizens who want to own guns, but preventing guns from getting into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.

We brought together people here tonight who represent really all sides of the issue -- gun owners, gun sellers, people who have survived shootings or lost loved ones. Some here believe that having more guns makes us all safer, and believe the right to bear arms defines us, preserves us from tyranny and cannot be compromised in any way. Others here tonight believe just as passionately that more needs to be done to limit the sale of firearms. And we respect all of their views, and we want to hear from as many as we can tonight in the hour ahead.

One voice you will not hear from tonight is the National Rifle Association. They’re the nation’s largest, most influential and powerful gun rights group. We invited them to be here -- I think their office is just a couple miles away. They declined to take part. Some of their members are here tonight, though. We're very thankful for that. And so are representatives from the National Firearms Retailers Association.

This town hall is not something the White House dreamed up or that the White House organized. CNN approached the White House shortly after the San Bernardino terror attack with this idea. And we're pleased that they agreed to participate and pleased to welcome tonight the President of the United States, Barack Obama. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

MR. COOPER: Hello, Mr. President. Welcome.

THE PRESIDENT: Great to see you.

MR. COOPER: Good to see you. Let me start. Have you ever owned a gun?

THE PRESIDENT: I have never owned a gun. Now, up at Camp David, we've got some skeet shooting, so on a fairly regular basis, we get a 12-gauge and -- I'm not making any claims about my marksmanship.

MR. COOPER: Before you were President, did you ever feel a desire to get a gun, feel the need to get a gun?

THE PRESIDENT: I grew up mostly in Hawaii, and other than hunting for wild pig -- which they do once in a while -- there’s not the popularity of hunting and sportsmanship with guns as much as there are in other parts of the country.

MR. COOPER: I mean, I ask the question because there’s a lot of people out there who don't trust you, obviously, on the issue of guns. You keep saying you don't want to take away everybody’s guns. But there’s a lot of people out there tonight watching who don't believe you. There are a lot of people in this room who, frankly, don't believe you. And it's not just that you don't really have personal experience having owned a gun, but that things you’ve said: Support for Australia’s tough anti-gun policies. They banned semi-automatic assault rifles. They banned even shotguns in Australia. You’ve praised their policies over and over.

Back in 2008, you said -- you talked about “bitter Americans clinging to their guns.” Even now, these executive actions have caused a lot of concern among a lot of people. What can you say to somebody tonight to convince them that you don't want to take away everybody’s guns and you're not coming for their guns?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, Anderson, I think it's useful to keep in mind I've been now President for over seven years and gun sales don't seem to have suffered during that time.

MR. COOPER: If anything, actually --

THE PRESIDENT: They’ve gone up. I've been very good for gun manufacturers. More importantly -- I'll tell you a story that I think indicates how I see the issue.

Back in 2007-2008, when I was campaigning, I’d leave Chicago, a city which is wonderful, I couldn't be prouder of my city, but where every week there’s a story about a young person getting shot. Some are gang members and it's turf battles. Sometimes it's innocent victims.

MR. COOPER: Fifty-five people have been shot in Chicago in the last seven days.

THE PRESIDENT: Sometimes it's happened just a few blocks from my house, and I live in a reasonably good neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.

So that's one image -- talking to families who’ve gone through the pain of losing somebody because of violence in Chicago -- gun violence.

Michelle and I are then campaigning out in Iowa, and we're going to farms and we're going to counties. And at one point, Michelle turned to me and she said, you know, if I was living in a farmhouse, where the sheriff’s department is pretty far away, and somebody can just turn off the highway and come up to the farm, I'd want to have a shotgun or a rifle to make sure that I was protected and my family was protected. And she was absolutely right.

And so part of the reason I think that this ends up being such a difficult issue is because people occupy different realities. There are a whole bunch of law-abiding citizens who have grown up hunting with their dad, or going to the shooting range, and are responsible gun owners. And then there’s the reality that there are neighborhoods around the country where it is easier for a 12 or 13-year-old to purchase a gun -- and cheaper -- than it is for them to get a book.

MR. COOPER: But what you're proposing, what you proposed this week, the executive actions, the other things, are they really going to be effective? And I ask this because the vast majority of felons out there -- I mean, we can all agree criminals should not get guns; we want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. The vast majority of criminals get their guns from -- either illegally or from family or friends. So background checks is not something that's going to affect them, is it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, but that's not exactly accurate. Look, first of all, it's important for everybody to understand what I've proposed and what I haven't proposed. What I've said consistently throughout my presidency is I respect the Second Amendment; I respect the right to bear arms; I respect people who want a gun for self-protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship. But all of us can agree that it makes sense to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who would try to do others harm, or to do themselves harm.

Because every year we're losing 30,000 people to gun violence. Two-thirds of those are actually suicides. Hundreds of kids under the age of 18 are being shot or shooting themselves, often by accident -- many of them under the age of five. And so if we can combine gun safety with sensible background checks and some other steps, we're not going to eliminate gun violence, but we will lessen it. And if we take that number from 30,000 down to, let’s say, 28,000, that's 2,000 families who don't have to go through what the families at Newtown or San Bernardino or Charleston went through.

And so what we've proposed is that if you have a background check system that has a bunch of big loopholes, which is why a lot of criminals and people who shouldn’t have guns are able to get guns --

Q But they’re not buying them at gun shows -- only 1 percent of criminals are buying them at gun shows.

THE PRESIDENT: No, but this is what happens. Let’s go back to the city of Chicago that has strong gun control laws. And oftentimes the NRA will point to that as an example and say, see, these things don’t work. Well, the problem is, is that about 30, 40 percent of those guns are coming from Indiana, across the border, where there are much laxer laws. And so folks will go to a gun show and purchase a whole bunch of firearms, put them in a van, drive up into Mike Pfleger’s neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, where his parish is, open up the trunk, and those things are for sale.

Now, technically, you could say those folks bought them illegally, but it was facilitated by the fact that what used to be a small exception that said collectors and hobbyists don’t need to go through a background check has become this massive industry where people who are doing business are, in fact, saying that they’re not in the business of selling guns, but are.

And all we’re saying here is, is that we want to put everybody on notice that the definition of doing business -- which means you have to register, and it means you have to run a background check -- is if you are making a profit and repeatedly selling guns, then you should have to follow the same rules as every other gun dealer. And what that means --

MR. COOPER: There are a lot of people who believe that’s not specific enough because there’s a lot of fathers and sons who sell guns every now and then and at gun shows. Are they going to have to now start doing background checks? Are they going to start to have to register?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, what the Justice Department has done is provided a whole range of very specific examples. And what we ultimately need I believe is for Congress to set up a system that is efficient, that doesn’t inconvenience the lawful gun seller or purchaser, but that makes sure that we’re doing the best background check possible.

And the fact, Anderson, that the system may not catch every single person, or there may be a circumstance where somebody doesn’t think that they have to register and do, and that may cause some red tape and bureaucracy for them, which -- or inconvenience -- has to be weighed against the fact that we may be able to save a whole bunch of families from the grief that some of the people in this audience have had to go through.

And keep in mind, for the gun owners who are in attendance here, my suspicion is, is that you all had to go through a background check and it didn’t prevent you from getting a weapon. And the notion that you should have to do that but there are a whole bunch of folks who are less responsible than you who don’t have to do it doesn’t make much sense.

So why we should resist this -- keep in mind that, historically, the NRA was in favor of background checks. Historically, many in the Republican Party were in favor of background checks. And what’s changed is not that my proposals are particularly radical. What’s changed is we’ve suddenly created an atmosphere in which I put out a proposal like background checks or, after Sandy Hook, was calling on Congress, along with people like Gabby Giffords, who herself was a victim of gun violence -- we put out a proposal that is common sense, modest, does not claim to solve every problem, is respectful of the Second Amendment, and the way it is described is that we’re trying to take away everybody’s guns.

And part of the reason I welcomed this opportunity by CNN to have a good discussion and debate about it is because our position is consistently mischaracterized. And, by the way, there’s a reason why the NRA is not here. They’re just down the street, and since this is the main reason they exist, you’d think that they’d be prepared to have a debate with the President.

MR. COOPER: They haven't been to the White House for years.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, no, no -- we’ve invited them. We've invited them.

MR. COOPER: So, right now, tonight, you’re saying you would be --

THE PRESIDENT: We have invited them repeatedly. But if you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top and so over-heated, and, most importantly, is not acknowledging the fact that there’s no other consumer item that we purchase --

Q So is that an open invitation that --

THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second. Let me finish this point, Cooper. There’s nothing else in our lives that we purchase where we don’t try to make it a little safer if we can. Traffic fatalities have gone down drastically during my lifetime. And part of it is technology, and part of it is the National Highway Safety Administration does research and they figure out, you know what, seatbelts really work. And then we passed some laws to make sure seatbelts are fastened. Airbags make a lot of sense; let’s try those out. Toys -- we say, you know what, we find out that kids are swallowing toys all the time, let’s make sure that the toys aren’t so small that they swallow them if they’re for toddlers or infants. Medicine -- kids can’t open aspirin caps.

Now, the notion that we would not apply the same basic principles to gun ownership as we do to everything else that we own just to try to make them safer, or the notion that anything we do to try to make them safer is somehow a plot to take away guns, that contradicts what we do to try to create a better life for Americans in every other area of our lives.

MR. COOPER: And just so I’m clear, tonight you’re saying you would welcome to meet with the NRA?

THE PRESIDENT: Anderson, I’ve said this repeatedly -- I’m happy to meet with them. I’m happy to talk to them. But the conversation has to be based on facts and truth and what we’re actually proposing, not some imaginary fiction in which Obama is trying to take away your guns.

The reason, by the way, that gun sales spike not just before I propose something -- every time there is a mass shooting, gun sales spike. And part of the reason is, is that the NRA has convinced many of its members that somebody is going come grab your guns -- which is, by the way, really profitable for the gun manufacturers. It’s a great advertising mechanism, but it’s not necessary. There’s enough of a market out there for people who want protection, who are sportsmen, who wants to go hunting with their kids. And we can make it safer.

MR. COOPER: I want to open this up to people in our audience.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

MR. COOPER: People have traveled far. I want you to meet Taya Kyle. She’s the widow of Chris Kyle, former Navy SEAL, author of “American Sniper.” Taya wrote a book, “American Life: A Memoir of Love, War, Faith, and Renewal.”

Taya, we’re happy you’re here. What do you want to ask the President?

Q I appreciate you taking the time to come here. And I think that your message of hope is something I agree with, and I think it’s great. And I think that by creating new laws you do give people hope. The thing is that the laws that we create don’t stop these horrific things from happening, right? And that’s a very tough pill to swallow.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q We want to think that we can make a law and people will follow it. But by the very nature of their crime, they’re not following it. By the very nature of looking at the people who hurt our loved ones here, I don’t know that any of them would have been stopped by the background check. And yet -- I crave that desire for hope, too. And so I think, part of it, we have to recognize that we cannot outlaw murder, because the people who are murdering are -- they’re breaking the law, but they also don’t have a moral code that we have. And so they could do the same amount of damage with a pipe bomb. The problem is that they want to murder.

And I’m wondering why it wouldn’t be a better use of our time to give people hope in a different way, to say, you know what, we -- well, first of all, actually, let me back up to that. Because with the laws, I know that at least the last I heard, the federal prosecution of gun crimes was like 40 percent. And what I mean by that is that there are people lying on these forms already, and we’re not prosecuting them. So there’s an issue there, right? But instead, if we can give people hope and say that also during this time, while you’ve been President, we are at the lowest murder rate in our country -- all-time low of murders. We’re at an all-time high of gun ownership, right? I’m not necessarily saying that the two are correlated, but what I’m saying is that we’re at an all-time low for a murder rate. That’s a big deal.

And yet, I think most of us in this country feel like it could happen at any moment. It could happen to any of us at any time, at a moment’s notice. When you talk about the NRA, and after a mass shooting that gun sales go up, I would argue that it’s not necessarily that I think somebody is going to come take my gun from me, but I want the hope, and the hope that I have the right to protect myself, that I don’t end up to be one of these families; that I have the freedom to carry whatever weapon I feel I need, just like your wife said on that farm. The sheriff is not going to get to my house, either. And I understand that background checks aren’t necessarily going to stop me from getting a gun, but I also know that they wouldn’t have stopped any of the people here in this room from killing. And so it seems like almost a false sense of hope.

So why not celebrate where we are? I guess that’s my real question -- is celebrate that we’re good people, and 99.9 percent of us are never going to kill anyone.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me make a couple of points. First of all, thanks to your husband for his service, and thank you for your service, because of extraordinary heroism that he and your family have shown in protecting all of us. And I’m very grateful for that.

Number two, what you said about murder rates and violent crime generally is something that we don’t celebrate enough. The fact of the matter is, is that violent crime has been steadily declining across America for a pretty long time. And you wouldn’t always know it by watching television, but overall, most cities are much safer than they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago.

Now, I’d challenge the notion that the reason for that is because there’s more gun ownership, because if you look at where are the areas with the highest gun ownership, those are the places, in some cases, where the crime rate hasn’t dropped down that much. And the places where there’s pretty stiff restrictions on gun ownership, in some of those places the crime has dropped really quickly. So I’m not sure that there’s a one-to-one correlation there.

But I think the most important point I want to make is that you will be able to purchase a firearm. Some criminals will get their hands on firearms even if there’s a background check. Somebody may lie on a form. Somebody will intend to commit a crime but they don’t have a record that shows up on the background check system.

But in the same way that we don’t eliminate all traffic accidents, but over the course of 20 years, traffic accidents get lower -- there’s still tragedies, there’s still drunk drivers, there’s still people who don’t wear their seatbelts -- but over time, that violence was reduced, and so families are spared. That’s the same thing that we can do with gun ownership.

There is a way for us to set up a system where you, a responsible gun owner, who I’m assuming, given your husband and your family, is a much better marksman than I am, can have a firearm to protect yourself, but where it is much harder for somebody to fill up a car with guns and sell them to 13-year-old kids on the streets. And that is I think what we’re trying to do.

What we’re also trying to do is make the database more effective -- so that’s part of the proposal -- which, by the way, will convenience you when you go to the store, because if we can set up a 24/7 background check system, then that means that it’s less likely that things slip through the cracks or it’s more difficult for you to get your background check completed.

And we’re also trying to close a loophole that has been developing over the last decade where now people are using cut-out trusts and shell corporations to purchase the most dangerous weapons -- sawed-off shotguns, automatic weapons, silencers -- and don’t have to go through background checks at all. And we don’t know whether -- are these sales going to drug traffickers? We don’t know who’s purchasing them right now. And so what we’re saying is, you know what, that is something that we’ve got to do something about.

The same thing is true with Internet sales, where one study has shown that one out of 30 persons who are purchasing weapons over the Internet turn out to have a felony record. And that’s not something you want to see.

MR. COOPER: I think one question a lot of people have about you is do you believe the fundamental notion that a good guy with a gun or a good woman with a gun is an important bulwark against a bad person with a gun? And before you answer, I want you to meet Kimberly Corban. Kimberly was a college student in Colorado in 2006 -- Kimberly is right over there. She was raped by a man who broke into her apartment. She testified for three hours in the trial against him. Her attacker was sentenced to 24-years-to-life in prison. And I know that attack, Kimberly, changed your view of handguns. What’s your question for the President?

Q Absolutely. As a survivor of rape and now a mother to two small children, it seems like being able to purchase a firearm of my choosing, and being able to carry that wherever me and my family are, it seems like my basic responsibility as a parent at this point. I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids. So why can’t your administration see that these restrictions that you’re putting to make it harder for me to own a gun, or harder for me to take that where I need to be is actually just making my kids and I less safe?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Kimberly, first of all, obviously, your story is horrific. The strength you’ve shown in telling your story and being here tonight is remarkable. And so I’m really proud of you for that.

I just want to repeat that there’s nothing that we’ve proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm. And now, you may be referring to issues like concealed carry, but those tend to be state-by-state decisions, and we’re not making any proposals with respect to what states are doing. They can make their own decisions there. So there really is no -- nothing that we’re proposing that prevents you or makes it harder for you to purchase a firearm if you need one.

There are always questions as to whether or not having a firearm in the home protects you from that kind of violence. And I’m not sure we can resolve that. People argue it both sides. What is true is, is that you have to be pretty well trained in order to fire a weapon against somebody who is assaulting you and catches you by surprise. And what is also true is there’s always the possibility that that firearm in a home leads to a tragic accident. We can debate that, round or flat.

But for now, what I just want to focus on is that you certainly would like to make it a little harder for that assailant to have also had a gun. You certainly would want to make sure that if he gets released, that he now can’t do what he did to you to somebody else. And it’s going to be easier for us to prevent him from getting a gun if there’s a strong background system in place -- background check system in place.

And so if you look at the statistics, there’s no doubt that there are times where somebody who has a weapon has been able to protect themselves and scare off an intruder or an assailant. But what is more often the case is that they may not have been able to protect themselves but they end up the victim of the weapon that they purchased themselves. And that’s something that can be debated. In the meantime, all I’m focused on is making sure that a terrible crime like yours that was committed is not made easier because somebody can go on the Internet and just buy whatever weapon they want without us finding out whether they’re a criminal or not.

MR. COOPER: Kimberly, thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

You talked about Chicago, and there’s a lot of folks from Chicago here tonight. I want you to meet -- or I want everybody to meet, because I know you’ve met her before, Cleo Pendleton. She’s sitting over there. And I should point out -- I think I said it earlier -- 55 shootings in Chicago in just the past seven days. Cleo Pendleton, her daughter, Hadiya, performed at your second inauguration. She was shot to death a little more than a week later. She was 15 years old. She was an honor student, a majorette. And you being here tonight honors her, so thank you very much for being here. What’s your question to the President?

Q Well, I want to say thank you, first of all, for making it more difficult for guns to get in the hands of those that shouldn’t have them. Thank you for the action you took on Tuesday. But I want to ask a question -- how can we stop the trafficking of guns from states with looser gun laws into states with tougher gun laws? Because I believe that’s the case often in Chicago, and possibly the source of the gun that shot and murdered my daughter.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, it’s great to see you again. And part of the reason that we do this is because when you meet parents of wonderful young people and they tell their stories, at least for me, I think of Malia and I think of Sasha and I think of my nieces and I think of my nephews. And the pain that any of us go through with a loss like that is extraordinary. And I couldn’t be prouder of the families who are here representing both sides but who’ve been affected in those ways.

If we are able to set up a strong background check system -- and my proposal, by the way, includes hiring -- having the FBI hire a couple hundred more people to help process background checks, because they’re big numbers, you’re talking about 20 million checks that are getting done every year -- hiring 200,000 -- or 200 more ATF agents to be able to go after unscrupulous gun dealers, then that will apply across the country.

And so, some states may have laws that allow for conceal-and -carry; some states may not. There’s still going to be differences. But what will at least be consistent across the country is that it’s a little bit harder to get a gun.

Now, we can’t guarantee that criminals are not going to have ways of getting guns. But, for example, it may be a little more difficult and a little more expensive, and the laws of supply and demand mean that if something is harder to get and it’s a little more expensive to get, then fewer people get them. And that, in and of itself, could make a difference.

So if somebody is a straw purchaser -- and what that means is they don’t intend the guns for themselves, they intend to resell them to somebody else -- they go to a gun show in Indiana, where right now they don’t have to do a background check, load up a van, and open up that van and sell them to kids in gangs in Chicago -- if now that person has to go through a background check, they’ve got to register, ATF has the capacity then to find out if and when a gun is used in a crime in Chicago where that gun had come from. And now you know here’s somebody who seems to be willing to sell a gun to a 15-year-old who had a known record.

MR. COOPER: But you’re only going to be asking people to get a license and do background checks if they give out business cards, if they’re selling weapons that are in the original packaging. Somebody just walking around a gun show selling a weapon is not necessarily going to have to register.

THE PRESIDENT: No -- look, there’s going to be a case-by-case evaluation: Are they on an ongoing basis making a profit and are they repeatedly selling firearms.

MR. COOPER: I want you to meet Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona. He’s a Republican running for Congress. After the recent terror attacks, Sheriff, I know you’ve been telling citizens to arm themselves to protect their families. What’s your question to the President?

Q Well, first, deputies’ slow response time has been mentioned a couple times. I want to be clear that my deputies have a very fast emergency response --

THE PRESIDENT: I’m sure that’s true.

Q Yes. Mr. President, you’ve said you’ve been thwarted by -- frustrated by Congress. As a sheriff, I oftentimes get frustrated. But I don’t make the laws and I’ve sworn an oath to enforce the law, to uphold the Constitution, the same oath you’ve taken. And the talk and why we’re here is all these mass shootings, and yet you’ve said in your executive action it wouldn’t have solved even one of these or the terrorist attack --

THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that it wouldn’t solve one.

Q Well, looking at the information, what would it have solved? Now, knowing --

MR. COOPER: None of the recent mass shootings, I should point out, none of the guns were purchased from an unlicensed dealer.

Q Correct. And that’s what I’m speaking to -- the executive action that you mentioned earlier. Aspirin, toys, or cars, they’re not written about in the Constitution. I want to know -- and I think all of us really want to get to the solution, and you said don’t talk past each other -- what would you have done to prevent these mass shootings and the terrorist attack? And how do we get those with mental illness and criminals -- that’s the real problem here -- how are we going to get them to follow the laws?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, appreciate your service. Good luck on your race. You sure you want to go to Congress?

Q I don’t want to talk about --

THE PRESIDENT: (Laughter.) I’m sure that’s true. That will hurt you. And I’m sure it’s a Republican district. (Laughter.)

Look, crime is always going to be with us. So I think it’s really important for us not to suggest that if we can’t solve every crime, we shouldn’t try to solve any crimes. (Applause.)

And the problem when we talk about that guns don’t kill people; people kill people, or it’s primarily a mental health problem, or it’s a criminal and evil problem and that’s what we have to get at -- all of us are interested in fighting crime. I’m very proud of the fact that violent crime rates have continued to go down during the course of my presidency. I’ve got an Attorney General, an FBI that works very closely with local law enforcement in busting up crime rings all the time. That’s a huge priority to us. And we’re probably providing grants to your department to help go after criminals.

The challenge we have is that in many instances, you don’t know ahead of time who’s going to be the criminal. It’s not as if criminals walk around with a label saying, “I’m a criminal.” And, by the way, the young man who killed those kids in Newtown, he didn’t have a criminal record, and so we didn’t know ahead of time, necessarily, that he was going to do something like that. But he was able to have access to an arsenal that allowed him in very short order to kill an entire classroom of small children. And so the question then becomes, are there ways for us -- since we can’t identify that person all the time, are there ways for us to make it less lethal when something like that happens?

And I mentioned this during my speech at the White House a couple of days ago. Right around the time of Newtown, in China, a guy who was obviously similarly deranged had a knife and started attacking a bunch of schoolchildren. About the same number were cut or stabbed by this guy. But most of them survived. And the reason was because he wasn’t yielding a semi-automatic.

So the main point I think that I want to make here is that everybody here is in favor of going after criminals, locking them up, making sure that we’re creating an environment where kids don’t turn into criminals and providing the support that they need. Those are all important things. Nobody is saying we need to be going soft on criminals.

What we do have to make sure of is that we don’t make it so easy for them to have access to deadly weapons. In neighborhoods like Chicago -- I keep on using Chicago -- this is all across the country. You go into any neighborhood, it used to be that parents would see some kids messing around on the corner and they’d say, “Yo” -- even if they weren’t the parent of those children -- “go back inside, stop doing that.” And over time, it was a lot harder to discipline somebody else’s kid and have the community maintain order, or talk to police officers if somebody is doing something wrong, because now somebody is worried about getting shot.

And if we can create an environment that’s just a little bit safer in those communities, that will help. And if it doesn’t infringe on your Second Amendment rights, and it doesn’t infringe on your Second Amendment rights, and you’re still able to get a firearm for your protection, why wouldn’t we want to do that?

MR. COOPER: We’ve got to take a break. (Applause.) We’re going to take a quick break. Our live town hall conversation, “Guns in America,” with President Barack Obama continues right after this.

* * * *

MR. COOPER: And welcome back. We’re live at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, continuing our live town hall conversation with President Barack Obama, “Guns In America,” talking to voices from all sides of the issue, including the President.

You made your announcement just the other day in a very obviously emotional ceremony at the White House. And I want to play just a moment from it for those who haven’t seen it.

(Video is shown.)

I think a lot of people were surprised by that moment.

THE PRESIDENT: I was, too, actually. I visited Newtown two days after what happened, so it was still very raw. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen Secret Service cry on duty. And it wasn’t just the parents. You had siblings -- 10-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 3-year-olds, who, in some cases, didn’t even understand that their brother or sister weren’t going to be coming home. And I’ve said this before -- it continues to haunt me. It was one of the worst days of my presidency.

But, look, I want to emphasize that there are a lot of tragedies that happen out there as a consequence of the victims of crime. There are police officers who are out there laying down their lives to protect us every single day. And tears are appropriate for them, as well, and I visit with those families, as well -- victims of terrorism, soldiers coming home.

There’s a lot of heartache out there. And I don’t suggest that this is the only kind of heartache we should be working on. I spent a lot of time and a lot of hours -- in fact, a lot more hours than I spend on this -- trying to prevent terrorist attacks. I spend a lot of time and a lot of hours trying to make sure that we’re continuing to reduce our crime rate.

There are a whole bunch of other answers that are just as important when it comes to making sure that the streets of places like Chicago and Baltimore are safer. Making sure kids get a good early childhood education. Making sure that we’re teaching conflict resolution that doesn’t involve violence. Making sure that faith communities are able to reach out to young people and intervene in timely ways.

So this is not a recipe for solving every problem. Again, I just want to emphasize that the goal here is just to make progress. And it’s interesting, as I enter into my last year as President, I could not be prouder of the work that we’ve done. But it also makes you really humble, because you realize that change takes a long time and a lot of the work you do is just to incrementally make things better so that, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the crime rate has gone down.

That’s not just because of my administration. That’s the groundwork that was laid by a bunch of good work by law enforcement and others for years, across administrations, on a bipartisan basis.

The same is true with traffic safety. The same is true with advances in medicine. The same can be true with this if we stop exaggerating or mischaracterizing the positions of either side and we just come up with some sensible areas that people agree with. Background checks are an example: The majority of gun owners agree with this.

MR. COOPER: You talk about faith communities. Father Michael Pfleger is here. I know you know him well. He’s a Roman Catholic priest in Chicago. For those who don’t know, his church is St. Sabina on the South Side of Chicago. I was there about a month ago. It was a great honor to be there.

Father, you’ve given a lot of eulogies for a lot of kids in your community. Far too many over the 40 years that you have been there. What your question for the President?

Q Mr. President, first of all, thank you for your courage and your passion, and keep pushing. I happen to be from one of those cities where violence is not going down. Not only, as Anderson mentioned, the 55 shot, there’s been 11 killed in seven days in Chicago. And one of the main reasons for that is the easy access to guns. It’s easier to get a gun in my neighborhood than it is a computer. And the reality is, is because many of those guns have been bought legally. And I understand why people are pushing against you, because I understand it’s a business and it’s about a business, and so if we cut back the easy access to guns, less money for gun manufacturers, less money for the gun lobby. I understand the business of it. But that business is causing blood and the kids that are dying in Chicago. And for many years, nobody even cared about Chicago because the violence is primarily black and brown.

The reality is that I don’t understand why we can’t title guns just like cars. If I have a car and I give it to you, Mr. President, and I don’t transfer a title and you’re in an accident, it’s on me. We don’t take cars away by putting titles on them. Why can’t we do that with guns and every gun in America? So if somebody who’s buying 200 guns, selling them on the streets, if they can’t transfer those titles, then they’re going to be held responsible for the guns that they sell.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Father Mike, first of all, for those of you who don’t know him, has been working since before I moved to Chicago, and I was a 23-year-old when I first met him. And somehow I aged and he didn’t. (Laughter.)

MR. COOPER: Your gray hair is not going back, I can tell you from experience.

THE PRESIDENT: He was always the best-looking priest in Chicago. (Laughter.) But Father Pfleger has done heroic work at St. Sabina Parish.

Issues like licensing, registration, that’s an area where there’s just not enough national consensus at this stage to even consider it. And part of it is, is people’s concern that that becomes a prelude to taking people’s guns away. I mean, part of the challenge in this is that the gun debate gets wrapped up in broader debates about whether the federal government is oppressive. And there are conspiracy theories floating around the Internet these days all the time. We did a military exercise in Texas, and a whole bunch of folks were sure that this was the start of martial law, and were suggesting maybe don’t cooperate with the United States Army in an effort to prepare so that if they get deployed overseas, they can handle it. But that’s how difficult sometimes these debates are.

But I want to pick up on some things where I think there should be consensus. One of those areas that I talked about at the speech, part of the proposal is developing smart gun technology. Now, this is an interesting example. I don’t exactly understand this, and maybe there will be somebody in the audience who explains it to me. Back in 1997, the CEO of Colt said we can design, or are starting to develop guns where you can only use it if you’ve got a chip, where you wear a band or a bracelet, and that then protects your 2-year-old or 3-year-old from picking up the gun and using it. And a boycott was called against him, and they had to back off of developing that technology. The same with Smith & Wesson. They were in the process of developing similar technology, and they were attacked by the NRA as “surrendering.”

Now, to me, this does not make sense. If you are a gun owner, I would think that you would at least want a choice so that if you wanted to purchase a firearm that could only be used by you -- in part to avoid accidents in your home, in part to make sure that if it’s stolen, it’s not used by a criminal, in part, if there’s an intruder, you pull the gun but somehow it gets wrested away from you, that gun can’t be turned on you and used on you -- I would think there might be a market for that. You could sell that gun.

Now, I’m not saying that necessarily would be the only gun that’s available, but it seems to me that that would be something that in any other area, in any other product, any other commercial venture, there would be some research and development on that because that’s a promising technology.

It has not been developed primarily because it’s been blocked by either the NRA, which is funded by gun manufacturers, or other reasons. In part, what we proposed was, you know what, we’re going to do some of the research. We’ll work with the private sector. (Applause.) We’ll figure out whether or not this technology can be developed -- (applause) -- and then give everybody a choice in terms of the kind of firearm that they want to purchase -- because I think that there will, in fact, be a market for that. And over time, that’s an example of how we could reduce some of the preventable gun deaths that are out there.

MR. COOPER: I want to bring in somebody who actually knows a lot about selling guns. I want you to meet Kris Jacob. He’s vice president of the American Firearms Retailers Association. He’s the owner of the Bullseye Indoor Shooting Range and gun store in San Rafael, California. Kris, it’s great to have you here. First of all, how is business under President Obama? Because everything I read says gun sales have been going up. Every time he talks about guns, gun sales go up.

Q It’s been busy. And certainly I think that shows, as Taya said earlier, that there’s a very serious concern in this country about personal security. And the sheriff is right -- they do everything they possibly can to make sure they get there as quickly as they possibly can. And my question is actually focused around law enforcement, as well. There’s 53,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States who stand behind the counter and say no to people all day.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q We feel it’s our responsibility to make sure that people who have a criminal past, people who are mentally ill or are having a bad day don’t get possession of firearms. So we assist law enforcement all the time in the process of making sure that those things don’t change hands inside our commercial market if they shouldn’t. It’s a very serious responsibility for us, and as a group, we take it very seriously.

My question is around the executive order related to the investigators, the inspectors, the adding of 200 inspectors who are more on the auditing and record-keeping side. Why not add 200 ATF agents on the law enforcement side to keep the criminals and the bad guys out of the stores in the first place? I mean, the problem seems to me to be -- you mentioned dealers who are less responsible than others, and certainly it’s possible that those folks are out there, but if we can enforce the laws that already exist, the tens of thousands of gun laws that are on the books right now, it might create a very significant deterrent in just getting those people in the stores.

MR. COOPER: Let me also point out the number of ATF agents during your administration has actually declined. So even if you hired 200 more --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but not because of my budget.

MR. COOPER: But even if you hired 200 more, it will get it to what it was right before you took office.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Well, look, first of all, there are a whole bunch of responsible gun dealers out there. And my hope would be that those gun dealers would support making sure that everybody is following the same rules that they are. That’s number one.

Number two is we’re not writing a new law. Only Congress can do that. This is about enforcing existing laws, and closing what has grown into a massive loophole where a huge percentage of guns -- many of whom end up being traced to crime -- are not going through the responsible gun dealers, but are going through irresponsible folks who are not registered as doing business. And the whole goal here is to clarify and to put on notice that if you’re a business, even if you don’t have bricks and mortar, then you’re supposed to register, you’re supposed to conduct background checks. So the issue is not where you do it, it’s what you’re doing. And that should not be something that threatens responsible gun dealers across the country.

In terms of the ATF, it is absolutely true that the ATF budget has been shrank because -- has been shrunk -- it’s a little late -- (laughter) -- you knew what I meant -- (laughter) -- and part of it is because the politicizing of this issue. So many in the Republican Congress feel as if the ATF is not their friend, but their enemy. Part of the story I was telling --

MR. COOPER: You said this issue should be politicized, though.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, but what I mean by that, Anderson, is, is that they have been portrayed as trying to take people’s guns away as opposed to trying to make sure that the laws are enforced. And one of the most frustrating things that I hear is when people say -- who are opposed to any further laws -- why don’t you just enforce the laws that are on the books, and those very same members of Congress then cut ATF budgets to make it impossible to enforce the law. (Applause.)

And by the way, the ATF is a law enforcement agency working under the FBI that is doing enormous work in going after criminals and drug cartels, and have a pretty dangerous job. So it’s not as if doing background checks or auditing gun sales is all that they’re doing.

Part of my proposal is also developing better technologies so that we can do tracing of shells when a crime is committed in order to figure out who exactly are the perpetrators of the crime and where did they obtain the weapon. So there’s a whole bunch of other elements to this that are going to be important. But my hope is, is that responsible gun dealers like yourself and your organization are going to be supportive of this proposal, because it should actually help push away unscrupulous dealers and that means more customers for you guys.

MR. COOPER: I want to bring in Mark Kelly. As you know, a former astronaut, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who we’re proud to say is here tonight. Five years ago this week in Tucson, Arizona, Congresswoman Giffords was shot. Six others were killed. Captain, your question?

Q Well, thank you for being here, Mr. President. As you know, Gabby and I are both gun owners. We take gun ownership very seriously and really think about the voices of responsible gun owners in this debate. But I want to follow up to something Father Pfleger said and your answer to his question, and it’s about expanded background checks. Often, what you hear in the debate of expanding background checks to more gun sales -- and, as you know, Gabby and I are 100 percent behind the concept of somebody getting a background check before buying a gun -- but when we testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we heard not only from the gun lobby but from United States senators that expanding background checks will -- not may -- will lead to a registry, which will lead to confiscation, which will lead to a tyrannical government.

So I would like you to explain, with 350 million guns in 65 million places, households, from Key West to Alaska -- 350 million objects in 65 million places -- if the federal government wanted to confiscate those objects, how would they do that? (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, first of all, every time I see Gabby, I’m just so thrilled because I visited her in the hospital, and, as I mentioned I think in the speech in the White House, as we left the hospital then to go to a memorial service, we got word that Gabby had opened her eyes for the first time. And we did not think that she was going to be here, and she is. And Mark has just been extraordinary. And, by the way, Mark’s twin brother is up in space right now and is breaking the record for the longest continuous orbiting of the planet, which is pretty impressive stuff.

What I think Mark is alluding to is what I said earlier -- this notion of a conspiracy out there, and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government. Now, there’s a long history of that. That’s in our DNA. The United States was born suspicious of some distant authority.

MR. COOPER: But let me just jump in -- is it fair to call it a conspiracy? I mean, there’s a lot of people who really believe this deeply -- that they just don’t trust you.

THE PRESIDENT: I’m sorry, Cooper, yes it is fair to call it a conspiracy. What are you saying? (Applause.) Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody’s guns away so that we can impose martial law --

MR. COOPER: Not everybody, but there is certainly a lot of people --

THE PRESIDENT: -- is a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope that you would agree with that. (Applause.) Is that controversial except on some websites around the country?

MR. COOPER: There are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to get -- go further and further and further down this road.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, I mean, I’m only going to be here for another year. I don’t know -- when would I have started on this enterprise, right? (Laughter.)

I come from the state of Illinois, which -- we’ve been talking about Chicago, but downstate Illinois is closer to Kentucky than it is to Chicago. And everybody hunts down there and a lot of folks own guns. And so this is not, like, alien territory to me. I’ve got a lot of friends like Mark who are hunters. I just came back from Alaska, where I ate a moose that had just been shot -- and it was pretty good.

So, yes, it is a false notion that I believe is circulated for either political reasons or commercial reasons in order to prevent a coming together among people of goodwill to develop common-sense rules that will make us safer while preserving the Second Amendment.

And the notion that we can’t agree on some things while not agreeing on others and the reason for that is because, well, the President secretly wants to X would mean that we’d be paralyzed about doing everything. I mean, maybe when I proposed to make sure that unsafe drugs are taken off the market that, secretly, I’m trying to control the entire drug industry, or take people’s drugs away. But probably not. What’s more likely is I just want to make sure that people are not dying by taking bad drugs.

MR. COOPER: You wrote an op-ed that just got published. A lot of people probably have not read it yet. One of the things you say in it is that you are not going to campaign for, vote for any candidate, regardless of what party they’re in, if they do not support common-sense gun reform. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. I meant what I said. And the reason I said that is this. The majority of people in this country are a lot more sensible than what you see in Washington, and the reason that Washington doesn’t work well in part is because the loudest, shrillest voices, the least compromising, the most powerful or those with the most money have the most influence.

And the way Washington changes is when people vote. And the way we break the deadlock on this issue is when Congress does not have just a stranglehold on this debate -- or, excuse me -- the NRA does not have a stranglehold on Congress in this debate -- (applause) -- but it is balanced by a whole bunch of folks -- gun owners, law enforcement, the majority of the American people -- when their voices are heard, then things get done.

The proposals that we’ve put forward are a version -- a lawful, more narrow version -- of what was proposed by Joe Manchin and Senator Toomey of Pennsylvania, a Republican and a Democrat, both of whom get straight-A scores from the NRA. And somehow, after Newtown, that did not pass the Senate. The majority of senators wanted it, but 90 percent of Republicans voted against it. And I’ll be honest with you, 90 percent of those senators didn’t disagree with the proposal, but they were fearful that it was going to affect them during the election.

So all I’m saying is, is that this debate will not change and get balanced out so that lawful gun owners and their Second Amendment rights are protected, but we’re also creating a pathway towards a safer set of communities -- it’s not going to change until those who are concerned about violence are not as focused and disciplined during election time as those who are. And I’m going to throw my shoulders behind folks who want to actually solve problems instead of just getting a high score from an interest group. (Applause.)

MR. COOPER: We have time for one more question. And we talked about Chicago a little bit. We haven't really heard from young people tonight -- no offense to those who have spoken. (Laughter.) I’m in the same category as you all. Sorry, Father.

THE PRESIDENT: You’re a kid.

MR. COOPER: There’s a lot of kids, as you know, growing up in Chicago, fearful of walking to school, fearful of coming home from school. A lot of kids have been killed on buses. There’s a lot of moms of kids who have been killed in the streets of Chicago. And I want you to meet Trey Bosley. He’s 18 years old. He’s a high school student. And his brother Terrell was shot and killed nearly 10 years ago while he was helping a friend in a church parking lot. Terrell would have turned 28 years old on this Tuesday. What’s your question, Trey?

Q As you said, I lost my brother a few years ago -- well, 10 years ago. And I’ve also lost a countless amount of family members and friends to gun violence, as well. And just growing up as a young black teen in Chicago, where you’re surrounded by not only just gun violence but police brutality, as well, most of aren’t thinking of our life on a long-term scale. Most of us are either thinking day to day, hour to hour -- for some, even minute to minute. I want to thank you for your stand against gun violence for not only the victims of gun violence, but those on the verge of being victims of gun violence. And my question to you is, what is your advice to those youth growing up surrounded by poverty and gun violence?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, Trey, I couldn’t be prouder of you. And I know -- is that your momma next to you? I know she’s proud of you right now. So good job, Mom.

When I see you, Terrell, I think I about my own --

MR. COOPER: Trey.

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me -- Trey. When I see you, I think about my own youth, because I wasn’t that different from you. Probably not as articulate and maybe more of a goof-off. But the main difference was I lived in a more forgiving environment. If I screwed up, I wasn’t at risk of getting shot. I’d get a second chance. There were a bunch of folks who were looking out for me, and there weren’t a lot of guns on the streets. And that’s how all kids should be growing up, wherever they live.

My advice to you is to continue to be an outstanding role model for the young ones who are coming up behind you. Keep listening to your mom. Work hard and get an education. Understand that high school and whatever peer pressure or restrictions you’re under right now won’t matter by the time you’re a full adult, and what matters is your future. But what I also want to say to you is, is that you’re really important to the future of this country.

And I think it is critical in this debate to understand that it’s not just inner-city kids who are at risk in these situations. Out of the 30,000 deaths due to gun violence, about two-thirds of them are actually suicides. That’s part of the reason why we are investing more heavily also in mental health under my proposal.

But while the majority of victims of gun homicide are black or Hispanic, the overwhelming majority of suicides by young people are white. And those, too, are tragedies. Those, too, are preventable. I’m the father of two outstanding young women, but being a teenager is tough. And we all remember the times where you get confused, you’re angry, and then the next thing you know, if you have access to a firearm what kind of bad decisions you might make. So those are deaths we also want to prevent.

Accidental shootings are also deaths we want to prevent. And we’re not going to prevent all of them. But we can do better. We’re not going to, through this initiative alone, solve all the problems of inner-city crime. Some of that, as I said, has to do with investing in these communities and making sure there’s good education and jobs and opportunity -- (applause) -- and great parents, and moral responsibility, and ethical behavior, and instilling that in our kids -- that’s going to be important.

So this is not a proposal to solve every problem. It’s a modest way of us getting started on improving the prospects of young men and young women like you, the same way we try to improve every other aspect of our lives. That’s all it is.

And if we get started -- as I said before, it used to be people didn’t wear seatbelts, didn’t have airbags. It takes 20, 30 years, but you look and then you realize all these amazing lives of young people like this who are contributing to our society because we came together in a practical way, looking at evidence, looking at data, and figured out how can we make that work better.

Right now, Congress prohibits us even studying through the Center for Disease Control ways in which we could reduce gun violence. That’s how crazy this thing has become. Let’s at least figure out what works. And some of the proposals that I’m making may turn out are not as effective as others. But at least let’s figure it out, let’s try some things. Let’s not just assume that -- every few weeks there’s a mass shooting that gets publicity, every few months there’s one that gets national publicity, every day there are a whole bunch of folks shot on streets around the country that we don’t even hear about. That is not something that we can be satisfied with.

And part of my faith and hope in America is just that -- not that we achieve a perfect union, but that we get better. And we can do better than we’re doing right now if we come together. (Applause.)

Thank you.

MR. COOPER: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time.

THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate it very much.

END 9:13 P.M. EST

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/07/remarks-president-cnn-guns-america-town-hall

*

Guns in America town hall with Obama transcript (full text)

(CNN)—The town hall was recorded at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and broadcast on January 7, 2016

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: And good evening from George Mason University here in Fairfax, Virginia. We are here tonight to talk about one of the most divisive issues in America today: guns.

Now, protection is enshrined in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and gun ownership is an integral part of American history and culture.

There are some 30,000 gun deaths in America each year. Two-thirds of them are suicides, one-third of them are homicides. So the question we want to confront tonight is how you find a balance between protecting the rights of American citizens who want to own guns, but preventing guns from getting into the hands of people who shouldn't have them.

We brought together people here tonight who represent really all sides of the issue: gun owners, gun sellers, people who've survived shootings or lost loved ones.

Some here believe that having more guns makes us all safer, and believe the right to bear arms defines us, preserves us from tyranny, and cannot be compromised in any way.

Others here tonight believe just as passionately that more needs to be done to limit the sale of firearms, and we respect all of their views and we want to hear from as many as we can tonight, in the hour ahead.

One voice you will not hear from tonight is the National Rifle Association. They're the nation's largest, most influential and powerful gun rights group. We invited them to be here. they -- I think their office is just a couple miles away. They declined to take part.

Some of their members are here tonight, though, and we're very thankful for that, and so are representatives from the National Firearms Retailers Association.

This town hall is not something the White House dreamed up or that the White House organized. CNN approached the White House shortly after the San Bernardino terror attacks with this idea, and we're pleased that they agreed to participate, and pleased to welcome tonight the president of the United States, Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

Hey, Mr. President. Welcome.

(CROSSTALK)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Great to see you.

COOPER: Good to see you.

Let me start. Have you ever owned a gun?

OBAMA: I have never owned a gun. Now, up at Camp David, we've got some skeet shooting, so on a fairly regular basis, we get a 12-gauge and -- I'm not making any claims about my marksmanship, but.

COOPER: Before you were president, did you ever feel a desire to get a gun, feel the need to get a gun?

OBAMA: You know, I grew up mostly in Hawaii, and other than hunting for wild pig, which they do once in a while, you know, there's not the popularity of hunting and sportsmanship with guns as much as there are in other parts of the country.

COOPER: Right. I mean, I ask the question because there's a lot of people out there who don't trust you, obviously, on the issue of guns. You keep saying you don't want to take away everybody's guns, but there's a lot of people out there tonight watching who don't believe you. There's a lot of people in this room who, frankly, don't believe you.

And it's not that you don't really have personal experience having owned a gun, but it's that things you said -- support for Australia's tough anti-gun policies. They banned semiautomatic assault rifles, they -- they banned even shotguns in Australia.

OBAMA: Right.

COOPER: You praised their policies over and over. Back in 2008, you said -- you talked about bitter Americans clinging to their guns. Even now, these executive actions tended (ph) to cause a lot of concern among a lot of people.

What can you say to somebody tonight to convince them that you don't want to take away everybody's guns? That you're not coming for their guns?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, Anderson, I think it's useful to keep in mind, I've been, now, president for over seven years, and gun sales don't seem to have suffered during that time.

COOPER: If anything, actually, you've helped.

OBAMA: They've -- they've -- gone up. I've -- been very good for gun manufacturers.

More importantly, let -- I'll tell you a story that, I think, indicates how I see the issue. Back in 2007, 2008, when I was campaigning, I'd leave Chicago, a city which is wonderful -- I couldn't be prouder of my city -- but where, every week, there's a story about a young person getting shot.

Some are gang members, and it's turf battles. Sometimes it's innocent victims.

COOPER: Fifty-five people have been shot in Chicago in the last seven days.

OBAMA: Sometimes it's happened just a few blocks from my house, and I live in a reasonably good neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. So that's one image. All right? Talking to families who've gone through the pain of losing somebody because of violence in Chicago, gun violence.

COOPER: Michelle and I are, then, campaigning out in Iowa, and we're going to farms, and we're going to counties, and at one point, Michelle turned to me, and she said, you know, if I was living in a farmhouse where the sheriff's department is pretty far away and somebody can just turn off the highway and come up to the farm, I'd want to have a shotgun or a rifle to make sure that I was protected and my family was protected. And she was absolutely right.

And so part of the reason I think that this ends up being such a difficult issue is because people occupy different realities. There are a whole bunch of law-abiding citizens who have grown up hunting with their dad or going to the shooting range, and are responsible gun-owners, and then there's the reality that there are neighborhoods around the country where it is easier for a 12- or a 13-year-old to purchase a gun and cheaper than it is for them to get a book.

COOPER: But what you're proposing, what you proposed this week, the executive actions, the other things, are they really going to be effective? And I ask this because the vast majority of felons out there -- I mean, we can all agree, criminals should not get guns. We want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. The vast majority of criminals get their guns from -- either illegally or for family or friends. So background checks is not something that's going to affect them, is it?

OBAMA: Well, but that's not exactly accurate. Look, first of all, it's important for everybody to understand what I've proposed and what I haven't proposed. What I've said consistently throughout my presidency is I respect the Second Amendment, I respect the right to bear arms. I respect people who want a gun for self-protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship.

But all of us can agree that it makes sense to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who would try to do others harm or to do themselves harm, because every year we're losing 30,000 people to gun violence. Two-thirds of those are actually suicides. Hundreds of kids under the age of 18 are being shot or shooting themselves, often by accident, many of them under the age of 5.

And so if we can combine gun safety with sensible background checks and some other steps, we're not going to eliminate gun violence, but we will lessen it. And if we take that number from 30,000 down to, let's say, 28,000, that's 2,000 families who don't have to go through what the families at Newtown or San Bernardino or Charleston went through.

And so what we've proposed is that if you have a background check system that has a bunch of big loopholes, which is why a lot of criminals and people who shouldn't have guns are able to get guns...

COOPER: But they're not buying them at gun shows. Only 1 percent of criminals are buying them at gun shows.

OBAMA: Well, no, but this is what happens. Let's go back to the city of Chicago that has strong gun control laws. And oftentimes, the NRA will point to that as an example and say, see, these things don't work.

Well, the problem is, is that about 30 percent, 40 percent of those guns are coming from Indiana across the border, where there are much laxer laws, and so folks will go to a gun show and purchase a whole bunch of firearms, put them in a van, drive up into Mike Pfleger's neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago where his parish is, open up the trunk, and those things are for sale.

Now, technically, you could say those folks bought them illegally, but it was facilitated by the fact that what used to be a small exception that said collectors and hobbyists don't need to go through a background check has become this massive industry where people who are doing business are, in fact, saying that they're not in the business of selling guns, but are.

And all we're saying here is, is that we want to put everybody on notice that the definition of doing business, which means you have to register and it means you have to run a background check, is if you are making a profit and repeatedly selling guns, then you should have to follow the same rules as every other gun dealer. And what it means...

COOPER: But there's a lot of people who believe that's not specific enough. Because there's a lot of, you know, fathers and sons who sell guns every now and then at gun shows. Are they going to have to now start doing background checks? Are they going to start to have to register?

OBAMA: Look, what the Justice Department has done is provided a whole range of very specific examples. And what we ultimately need, I believe, is for Congress to set up a system that is efficient, that doesn't inconvenience the lawful gun seller, or purchaser, but, that makes sure that we're doing the best background check possible. And, the fact, Anderson, the system may not catch every single person, or there may be a circumstance where somebody doesn't think that they have to register, or do, and that may cause some red tape, and bureaucracy for them -- which -- or inconvenience, has to be weighed against the fact that we may be able to save a whole bunch of families from the grief that some of the people in this audience have had to go through.

And, keep in mind, for the gun owners who are in attendance here, my suspicion is that you all had to go through a background check. And it didn't prevent you from getting a weapon. And, the notion that you should have to do that, but there are a whole bunch of folks who are less responsible than you who don't have to do it doesn't make much sense. So, why we should resist this -- keep in mind that, historically, the NRA was in favor of background checks.

Historically, many in the Republican party were in favor of background checks. And, what's changed is not that my proposals are particularly radical, what's changed is that we've suddenly created an atmosphere where I put out a proposal like background checks, or after Sandy Hook, we're calling on Congress along with people like Gabby Giffords who herself was a victim of gun violence, we put out a proposal that is commonsense, modest, does not claim to solve every problem, is respectful of the second amendment. And, the way it is described is that we're trying to take away everybody's guns.

And, part of the reason I welcomed this opportunity by CNN to have a good discussion debate about it is because our position is consistently mischaracterized. And, by the way, there's a reason why the NRA is not here.

Their just down the street. And, since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think they'd be prepared to have a debate with...

COOPER: ... would you be be willing to meet with them...

OBAMA: ... a president...

COOPER: ... they haven't been to the White House for years (inaudible)...

OBAMA: ... oh, no, no, we've invited them.

COOPER: So, right now, tonight, you're saying you would be willing...

OBAMA: ... we have invited them repeatedly, but if you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top, and so overheated, and most importantly, is not acknowledging the fact that there's no other -- consumer item that we purchase...

COOPER: ... so is that an open invitation that you've...

OBAMA: ... oh, hold on a second, let me finish this point, Cooper.

There's nothing else in our lives that we purchase where we don't try to make it a little safer if we can. Traffic fatalities have gone down drastically during my lifetime, and part of it is technology, and part of it is that the National Highway Safety Administration does research, and they figure out, you know what? Seat belts really work.

And, then we pass some laws to make sure seatbelts are fastened.

Air bags make a lot sense, let's try those out. Toys, we say, you know what? We find out that kids are swallowing toys all the time, let's make sure that the toys aren't so small that they swallow them if they're for toddlers, or infants. Medicine, kids can't open Aspirin caps.

Now, the notion that we would not apply the same basic principles to gun ownership as we do to everything else that we own...

COOPER: ... but you...

OBAMA: ... just to try to make them safer, or the notion that anything we do to try to make them safer is somehow a plot to take away guns -- that contradicts what we do to try to create a better life for Americans in every other area of our lives.

COOPER: Just so I'm clear, tonight you're saying you would welcome to meet with the NRA?

OBAMA: Anderson, I've said this repeatedly, I'm happy to meet with them. I'm happy to talk to them, but, the conversation has to be based on facts and truth, and what we're actually proposing, not some -- you know, imaginary fiction in which Obama's trying to take away your guns...

COOPER: ... well, let's talk about what you're proposing...

OBAMA: ... oh, and the reason, by the way, that gun sales spike not just before I propose something, every time there's a mass shooting, gun sales spike.

And part of the reason is that the NRA has convinced many of its members that somebody's going to come grab your guns, which is by the way, really profitable for the gun manufacturers. It's a great advertising mechanism, but it's not necessary. There is enough of a market out there for people who want protection, who are sportsmen, who want to go hunting with their kids and we can make it safer.

COOPER: I want to open this up to people in our audience.

OBAMA: Absolutely.

COOPER: A lot of people have traveled far. I want you to meet Taya Kyle. She's the widow of Chris Kyle, former Navy SEAL, author of "American Sniper." Taya wrote a book, "American Life: A Memoir of Love, War, Faith and Renewal."

Taya, we're happy you're here. What do you want to ask the president?

QUESTION: I appreciate you taking the time to come here. And I think that your message of hope is something I agree with. And I think it's great. And I think that by creating new laws, you do give people hope. The thing is that the laws that we create don't stop these horrific things from happening, right? And that's a very tough pill to swallow.

We want to think that we can make a law and people will follow it. By the very nature of their crime, they're not following it. By the very nature of looking at the people who hurt our loved ones here, I don't know that any of them would have been stopped by the background check. And yet, I crave that desire for hope, too.

And so I think part of it we have to recognize that we cannot outlaw murder because people who are murdering, right, are -- they're breaking the law, but they also don't have a moral code that we have. And so they could do the same amount of damage with a pipe bomb. The problem is that they want to murder.

And I'm wondering why it wouldn't be a better use of our time to give people hope in a different way, to say, "You know what? We" -- well first of all, actually, let me back up to that. Because with the laws, I know that at least last I heard, the federal prosecution of gun crimes was like 40 percent. And what I mean by that is that there are people lying on these forms already and we're not prosecuting them. So there's an issue there, right?

But instead, if we can give people hope and say also during this time while you've been president, we are at the lowest murder rate in our country -- all-time low murders. We're at an all-time high of gun ownership, right?

I'm not necessarily saying the two are correlated, but what I'm saying is that we're at an all-time low for murder rate. That's a big deal. And yet I think most of us in this country feel like it could happen at any moment. It could happen to any of us at any time.

And I'm almost finished. Just when -- when you talk about the NRA, and after a mass shooting that gun sales go up, I would argue that it's not necessarily that I think somebody's going to come take my gun from me, but I want the hope -- and the hope that I have the right to protect myself; that I don't end up to be one of these families; that I have the freedom to carry whatever weapon I feel I need, just like your wife said on that farm (ph). You know, I don't -- the sheriff's aren't going to get to my house either.

And I understand that background checks aren't necessarily going to stop me from getting a gun, but I also know that they wouldn't have stopped any of the people here in this room from killing. And so it seems like almost a false sense of hope.

So why not celebrate where we are? I guess that's my real question is...

OBAMA: Well...

QUESTION: Celebrate that we're good people, and 99.9 percent of us are never going to kill anyone.

OBAMA: Well, let me make a couple of points. First of all, thanks to your husband for his service and thank you for your service, because extraordinary heroism that he and your family have shown in protecting all of us. And I'm very grateful for that.

Number two, what you said about murder rates and violent crime generally is something that we don't celebrate enough. The fact of the matter is that violent crime has been steadily declining across America for a pretty long time. And you wouldn't always know it by watching television, but overall, most cities are much safer than they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago.

Now, I challenge the notion that the reason for that is because there's more gun ownership, because if you look at where are the areas with the highest gun ownership, those are the places in some cases where the crime rate hasn't dropped down that much. And the places where there's pretty stiff restrictions on gun ownership, in some of those places, the crime has dropped really quickly. So I'm not sure that there's a one-to-one correlation there.

But I think the most important point I want to make is that you will be able to purchase a firearm. Some criminals will get their hands on firearms even if there's a background check. Somebody may lie on a form. Somebody will intend to commit a crime, but they don't have a record that shows up on the background check system.

But, in the same way that we don't eliminate all traffic accidents, but, over the course of 20 years, traffic accidents get lower -- there's still tragedies. There's still drunk drivers. There's still people who don't wear their seat belts, but over time, that violence was reduced, and so families are spared.

That's the same thing that we can do with gun ownership. There is a way for us to set up a system where you, a responsible gun owner who -- I'm assuming, given your husband and your family, is a much better marksman than I am -- can have a firearm to protect yourself, but where it is much harder for somebody to fill up a car with guns and sell them to 13-year-old kids on the streets.

And -- and that is, I think, what we're trying to do. What we're also trying to do is make the database more effective, so that's part of the proposal -- which, by the way, will convenience you when you go to the store, because if we can set up a 24/7 background check system, then that means that it's less likely that things slip through the cracks or it's more difficult for you to -- to get your background check completed.

And we're also trying to close a loophole that has been developing over the last decade, where now, people are using cut-out trusts and shell corporations to purchase the most dangerous weapons -- sawed-off shotguns, automatic weapons, silencers -- and don't have to go through background checks at all.

And we don't know whether -- are these sales going to, you know, drug traffickers? Are they -- we don't know who's purchasing them right now. And so what we're saying is, you know what? That is something that we got to do something about.

The same thing is true with Internet sales, where one study has shown that 1 out of 30 persons who are purchasing weapons over the Internet turn out to have a felony record, and that's not something you want to see.

COOPER: I think one question a lot of people have about you is, do you believe the fundamental notion that a good guy with a gun, or a good woman with a gun is an important bulwark against a bad person with a gun?

And before you answer, I want you to meet Kimberly Corban. Kimberly was a college student in Colorado in 2006. Kimberly's right over there. She was raped by a man who broke into her apartment.

She testified for three hours in the trial against him. Her attacker was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison, and I know that attack, Kimberly, changed your view of handguns. What's your question for the president?

QUESTION: Absolutely.

As a survivor of rape, and now a mother to two small children -- you know, it seems like being able to purchase a firearm of my choosing, and being able to carry that wherever my -- me and my family are -- it seems like my basic responsibility as a parent at this point.

I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids. So why can't your administration see that these restrictions that you're putting to make it harder for me to own a gun, or harder for me to take that where I need to be is actually just making my kids and I less safe?

OBAMA: Well, Kimberly, first of all, obviously -- you know, your story is horrific. The strength you've shown in telling your story and, you know, being here tonight is remarkable, and so -- really proud of you for that.

I -- I just want to repeat that there's nothing that we've proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm. And -- now, you may be referring to issues like concealed carry, but those tend to be state-by-state decisions, and we're not making any proposals with respect to what states are doing. They can make their own decisions there.

So there really is no -- nothing we're proposing that prevents you or makes it harder for you to purchase a firearm if you need one. There are always questions as to whether or not having a firearm in the home protects you from that kind of violence, and I'm not sure we can resolve that. People argue it both sides.

What is true is, is that you have to be pretty well trained in order to fire a weapon against somebody who is assaulting you and catches you by surprise.

And what is also true is there's always the possibility that that firearm in a home leads to a tragic accident. You know, we can debate that round or flat.

But for now, what I just want to focus on is that you certainly would like to make it a little harder for that assailant to have also had a gun. You certainly would want to make sure that if he gets released, that he now can't do what he did to you to somebody else, and it's going to be easier for us to prevent him from getting a gun if there's a strong background system in place -- background check system in place.

And so, you know, if you look at the statistics, there's no doubt that there are times where somebody who has a weapon has been able to protect themselves and scare off an intruder or an assailant, but what is more often the case is that they may not have been able to protect themselves, but they end up being the victim of the weapon that they purchased themselves. And that is -- that's something that can be debated.

In the meantime, all I'm focused on is making sure that a terrible crime like yours that was committed is not made easier because somebody can go on the Internet and just buy whatever weapon they want without us finding out whether they're a criminal or not.

COOPER: Kimberly, thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

You talked about Chicago, and there's a lot of folks from Chicago here tonight. I want you to meet -- or I want everybody to meet, because I know you've met her before, Cleo Pendleton. She's sitting over there. And I should point out -- I think I said it earlier -- 55 shootings in Chicago in just the past seven days.

Cleo Pendleton, her daughter, Hadiya, performed at your second inauguration. She was shot to death a little more than a week later. She was 15 years old. She was an honor student, a majorette, and you being tonight honors her, so thank you very much for being here. What's your question to the president?

QUESTION: Well, I want to say thank you, first of all, for making it more difficult for guns to get in the hands of those that shouldn't have them. Thank you for the action you took on Tuesday.

But I want to ask a question. How can we stop the trafficking of guns from states with looser gun laws into states with tougher gun laws? Because I believe that's the case, you know, often in Chicago, and possibly the source of the gun that shot and murdered my daughter.

OBAMA: Well, first of all, it's great to see you again. And, you know, part of the reason that we do this is because when you meet parents of wonderful young people, and they tell their stories, at least for me, I think of Malia and I think of Sasha and I think of my nieces and I think of my nephews. And, you know, the pain that any of us go through with a loss like that is extraordinary. And I couldn't be prouder of the families who are here representing both sides, but who've been affected in those ways.

If we are able to set up a strong background check system -- and my proposal, by the way, includes hiring -- having the FBI hire a couple hundred more people to help process background checks, because the big numbers you're talking about, 20 million checks that are getting done every year, hiring 200,000 -- or 200 more ATF agents to be able to go after unscrupulous gun dealers, then that will apply across the country.

And so -- you know, some states may have laws that allow for conceal and carry. Some states may not. There are still going to be differences. But what will at least be consistent across the country is that it's a little bit harder to get a gun.

Now, we can't guarantee that criminals are not going to have ways of getting guns. But, for example, it may be a little more difficult and a little more expensive. And, you know, the laws of supply and demand mean that if something's harder to get and it's a little more expensive to get, then fewer people get them. And that in and of itself could make a difference.

So if somebody is a straw purchaser -- and what that means is they don't intend the guns for themselves, they intend to resell them to somebody else -- they go to a gun show in Indiana, where right now they don't have to do a background check, load them -- load up a van, and open up that van and sell them to kids and gangs in Chicago, if now that person has to go through a background check and register, ATF now has the capacity to find out if, and when a gun is used in a crime in Chicago where that gun comes from.

And, now you know, here's somebody who seems to be willing to sell a gun to a 15 year old who had a known record.

COOPER: But you're only going to be asking people to get a license, and do background checks if they give out business cards, if they're selling weapons in the original packaging. Somebody just walking around a gun show selling a weapon, not necessarily going to have to register.

OBAMA: No -- look, there's going to be a case by case evaluation. Are they on an ongoing basis making a profit, and are they repeatedly selling firearms.

COOPER: OK, I want you to meet Sheriff Paul Babeu, of Pinal County, Arizona. He's a Republican running for Congress after the recent terror attacks. Sherif, I know you've been telling citizens to arm themselves to protect their families...

QUESTION: ... yes...

COOPER: ... sheriff, what's your question to the President?

QUESTION: Well, first, deputies and a slow response time has been mentioned a couple of times, and I want to be clear about -- my deputies have a very fast emergency response time...

(LAUGHING)

OBAMA: I'm sure that's true.

QUESTION: Mr. President, you've said you've be thwarted by -- frustrated by Congress. As a Sheriff, I often times get frustrated, but I don't make the laws, and I've sworn an oath to enforce the law, to uphold the Constitution, same oath you've taken. And, the talk, you know, why we're here, is all these mass shootings, and, yet you've said in your executive action it wouldn't have solved even one of these, or...

OBAMA: ... oh, I didn't say that...

QUESTION: ... well...

OBAMA: ... I didn't say that it wouldn't solve one...

QUESTION: ... Wwll -- we've) got the information, what would it have solved...

COOPER: None of the recent mass shootings, I should point out, none of the guns were purchased from an unlicensed dealer.

QUESTION: Correct. And, that's what I'm speaking to -- the executive action that you mentioned. Earlier, you mentioned Aspirin, toys, or cars -- they're not written about in the Constitution. I want to know, and I think all of us really want to get to the solution -- and you said don't talk past each other -- what would you have done to prevent these mass shootings and the terrorist attack.

And, how do we get those with mental illness, and criminals, that's the real problem here, how are we going to get them to follow the laws?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, I appreciate your service, good luck on your race. You sure you want to Congress?

(LAUGHING)

QUESTION: I don't want to (inaudible)...

OBAMA: I'm sure that's true!

(LAUGHING)

OBAMA: That'll hurt you, and I'm sure it's a Republican district.

Look, crime is always going to be with us. So, I think it's really important for us not to suggest that if we can't solve every crime, we shouldn't try to solve any crimes.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- the problem, when we talk about that guns don't kill people, people kill people, it's primarily a mental health problem, or it's a criminal and evil problem, and that's what we have to get at. All of us are interested in fighting crime, I'm very proud of the fact that violent crime rates have continued to go down during the course of my presidency.

I've got an attorney general, an FBI that works very closely with local law enforcement in busting up crime rings all the time, that's a huge priority to us. And, we're probably providing grants to your department to help go after criminals. The challenge we have is that in many instances you don't know ahead of time who's going to be the criminal. It's not -- it's not as if criminals walk around with a label saying, "I'm a criminal."

And, by the way, the young man who killed those kids in New Town, he didn't have a criminal record, and so, we didn't know ahead of time, necessarily, that he was going to do something like that.

But, he was able to have access to an arsenal that allowed him in very short order to kill an entire classroom of small children. And, so, the question then becomes, are there ways for us, since we can't identify that person all the time, are there ways for us to make it less lethal when something like that happens.

And, I mentioned this during my speech at the White House a couple of days ago. Right around the time of New Town, in China, a guy was obviously similarly deranged, had a knife and started attacking a bunch of school children. About the same number were cut or stabbed by this guy, but most of them survived. And the reason was because he wasn't yielding (sic) a semiautomatic.

So -- so the -- the main point, I think, that I want to make here is that everybody here is in favor of going after criminals, locking them up, making sure that we're creating an environment where kids don't turn into criminals and providing the -- the support that they need.

Those are all important things. Nobody's -- nobody's saying we need to be going soft on criminals. What we do have to make sure of is that we don't make it so easy for them to have access to deadly weapons.

In neighborhoods like Chicago -- but I'm -- I keep on using Chicago. This is all across the country. You go into any neighborhood. It used to be that parents would see some kids messing around on the corner, and they'd say, "yo," even if they weren't the parent of those children, "go back inside. Stop doing that."

And over time, it was a lot harder to discipline somebody else's kid and have the community maintain order, or talk to police officers if somebody's doing something wrong, because now somebody is worried about getting shot.

And if we can create an environment that's just a little bit safer for -- in those communities, that will help. And if it doesn't infringe on your Second Amendment rights, and it doesn't infringe on your Second Amendment rights, and you're still able to get a firearm for your protection, why wouldn't we want to do that?

COOPER: We've got to take a break.

(APPLAUSE)

We're going to take a quick break. Our live town hall conversation, Guns in America, with President Barack Obama, continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back. We're live at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, continuing our 360 town hall conversation with President Barack Obama, Guns in America. Talking to voices from all sides of the issue, including the president.

You made your announcement just the other day in a very obviously emotional ceremony at the White House. I want to play just a moment from it for those who haven't seen it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: And from first graders in Newtown -- first graders, and from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun.

Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I think a lot of people were surprised by that moment.

OBAMA: I was, too, actually. You know, I visited Newtown two days after what happened, so it was still very raw. It's the only time I've ever seen Secret Service cry on duty. And it wasn't just the parents. You had siblings, you know -- 10-year-olds, eight-year-olds, three-year-olds who in some cases didn't even understand that their brother or sister weren't going to be coming home.

And I've said this before. It -- it continues to haunt me. It was one of the worst days of my presidency. But -- but look, I want to emphasize that there are a lot of tragedies that happen out there as a consequence of the victims of crime. There are police officers who are out there laying down their lives to protect us every single day.

You know, and -- and tears are appropriate for them as well, and I visit with those families as well -- victims of terrorism, soldiers coming home. You know, there's a lot of heartache out there. And I don't suggest that this is the only kind of heartache we should be working on. You know, I spend a lot of time and a lot of hours, in fact a lot more hours than I spend on this, trying to prevent terrorist attacks.

I spend a lot of time and a lot of hours trying to make sure that we're continuing to reduce our crime rate. There are a whole bunch of other answers that are just as important when it comes to making sure that the streets of places like Chicago and Baltimore are safer; making sure kids get a good early childhood education; making sure that we're teaching conflict resolution that doesn't involve violence; making sure that, you know, faith communities are able to reach out to young people and intervene in timely ways.

So, this is not a recipe for solving every problem. Again, I just want to emphasize that the goal here is just to make progress. And I -- it's interesting. As I -- as I enter into my last year as -- as president, I could not be prouder of the work that we've done, but it also makes you really humble because you realize that change takes a long time, and a lot of the work you do is just to incrementally make things better so that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the crime rate has gone down.

That's not just because of my administration. That's -- the groundwork was laid by a bunch of good work by law enforcement and others for years, across administrations on a bipartisan basis. The same is true with traffic safety. The same is true with advances in medicine. The same can be true with this if we stop exaggerating or mischaracterizing the positions of either side, and we just come up with some sensible areas that people agree with.

Background checks are an example. The majority of gun owners agree with this.

COOPER: You talked about faith communities. Father Michael Pfleger is here. I know you know him well. He's a Roman Catholic priest in Chicago. For those who don't know, his Church of St. Sabina on the south side of Chicago. I was there about a month ago. It was a great honor to be there.

Father, you've given a lot of eulogies for a lot of kids in your community; far too many over the 40 years that you have been there. What's your question for the president?

QUESTION: Mr. President, first of all, thank you for your courage and your passion, and keep pushing. I happen to be from one of those cities where violence is not going down. Not only did Anderson mention the 55 shot, there's been 11 killed in seven days in Chicago.

And one of the main reasons for that is the easy access to guns. It's easier to get a gun in my neighborhood than it is a computer. And the reality is, is because many of those guns have been bought legally.

And I understand why people are pushing against you, because I understand it's a business and it's about a business. And so if we cut back the easy access to guns, less money for the gun manufacturers, less money for the gun lobby, I understand the business of it. But that business is causing blood and the kids that are dying in Chicago. And for many years, nobody even cared about Chicago because the violence is primarily black and brown.

The reality is that I don't understand why we can't title guns just like cars. If I have a car and I give it to you, Mr. President, and I don't transfer a title, and you're in an accident, it's on me. We don't take cars away by putting titles on them. Why can't we do that with guns? And every gun in America -- so if somebody who's buying 200 guns, selling them on the streets, if they can't transfer those titles, then they're going to be held responsible for the guns that they sell.

OBAMA: Well, Father Mike, first of all, for those of you who don't know him, has been working since I -- since before I had moved to Chicago and I was a 23-year-old when I first met him. And somehow I aged, and he didn't.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Your gray hair is not going back, I can tell you from experience.

OBAMA: He was always the best-looking priest in Chicago, so -- but Father Pfleger has done heroic work at St. Sabina Parish. Issues like licensing, registration, that's an area where there's just not enough national consensus at this stage to even consider it. And part of it is, is people's concern that that becomes a prelude to taking people's guns away.

I mean, part of the challenge in this is that the gun debate gets wrapped up in broader debates about whether the federal government is oppressive and, you know, there are conspiracy theories floating around the Internet these days all the time. We did a military exercise in Texas, and a whole bunch of folks were sure that this was the start of martial law and were suggesting maybe don't cooperate with the United States Army in an effort to prepare so that if they get deployed overseas, they can handle it. But that's how difficult sometimes these debates are.

But there are -- but I want to pick up on some things where I think there should be consensus. One of those areas that I talked about at the speech, part of the proposal is developing smart gun technology.

Now, this is an interesting example. I don't exactly understand this, and maybe there will be somebody in the audience who explains it to me. Back in 1997, the CEO of Colt said, you know, we can design or are starting to develop guns where you can only use it if you've got a chip. You know, you wear a band or a bracelet, and that then protects your 2-year-old or 3-year-old from picking up the gun and using it. And a boycott was called against them, and -- and they had to back off of developing that technology.

The same with Smith and Wessen. They were in the process of developing similar technology, and they were attacked by the NRA as surrendering.

Now, to me, this does not make sense. If you are a gun-owner, I would think that you would at least want a choice so that if you wanted to purchase a firearm that could only be used by you, in part to avoid accidents in your home, in part to make sure that if it's stolen, it's not used by a criminal, in part if there's an intruder, you pull the gun, but you -- somehow it gets wrested away from you, that gun can't be turned on you and used on you, I would think there might be a market for that. You could sell that gun.

Now, I'm not saying that necessarily would be the only gun that's available, but it seems to me that that would be something that, in any other area, in any other product, any other commercial venture, there'd be some research and development on that, because that's a promising technology.

COOPER: Can I -- I want to...

OBAMA: It -- it hasn't -- it has not been developed, primarily because it's been blocked by either the NRA, which is -- are funded by gun manufacturers, or other reasons.

In part, what we proposed was, you know what? We're gonna do some of the research. We'll work with the private sector. We'll figure out whether or not this technology can be developed...

(APPLAUSE)

... and then give everybody a choice in terms of the kind of firearm that they want to purchase, because I think that there will in fact be a market for that. And over time, that's an example of how we could reduce some of the preventable gun deaths out there.

COOPER: I want to bring somebody who actually knows a lot about selling guns. Why don't you meet Kris Jacob, he's vice president of the American Firearms Retailers Association, he's the owner of the Bullseye indoor shooting range and gun store in San Rafael, California.

Kris, it's great to have you here. First of all, how is business under President Obama? Because everything I read says...

QUESTION: Great.

COOPER: ... gun sales have been going up. Every time he talks about guns, gun sales go up.

QUESTION: It's been busy, and -- and certainly, I think that shows, as Taya (ph) said earlier, that there's a very serious concern in this country about personal security. And the sheriff is right -- they do everything they possibly can to make sure they get there as quickly as they possibly can.

And -- and my question is actually focused around law enforcement, as well. There are 53,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States who stand behind the counter and say "no" to people all day.

OBAMA: Yep.

JACOB: We feel it's our responsibility to make sure that people who have a criminal past, people who are mentally ill or are having a bad day don't get possession of firearms. So we assist law enforcement all the time in the process of making sure that those things don't change hands inside our commercial market...

OBAMA: Right.

JACOB: ... if they shouldn't. It's a very serious responsibility for us, and as a group, we take it very seriously.

My question is around the executive order related to the investigators, the inspectors. The adding of 200 inspectors, who are more on the auditing and record-keeping side.

Why not add 200 ATF agents on the law enforcement side, to keep the criminals and the bad guys out of the stores in the first place? I mean, the problem seems to me -- to be -- you mentioned dealers who are less responsible than others, and certainly, it's possible that those folks are out there.

But if we can enforce the laws that already exist, the tens of thousands of gun laws that are on the books right now, it might create a very significant deterrent...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... getting those people in the stores (ph).

COOPER: Let me also point out -- the number of ATF agents, during your administration, has actually declined. So even if you hired...

OBAMA: Yes. Not -- not -- not because of my budget.

COOPER: ... 200 more -- but even if you hired 200 more, you'll get it to what it was right before you took office.

OBAMA: Absolutely. Well, look. First of all, there are a whole bunch of responsible gun dealers out there, and my hope would be that those gun dealers would support making sure that everybody is following the same rules that they are. That's number one.

Number two is we're not writing a new law. Only Congress can do that. This is about enforcing existing laws, and closing what has grown into a massive loophole where a huge percentage of -- of guns, many of whom end up being traced to crime, are not going through the responsible gun dealers, but are going through irresponsible folks, who are not registered as doing business.

And the whole goal here is to clarify, and to put on notice that, if you're a business, even if you don't have bricks and mortar, then you're supposed to register and you're supposed to conduct background checks.

So the -- the issue is not where you do it, it's what you're doing, and that should not be something that threatens responsible gun dealers across the country.

In terms of the ATF, it is absolutely true that the ATF budget has been shrank, because -- has be -- been shrunk. That's a little late, but, you know, you knew what I meant.

(LAUGHTER)

And -- and part of it is because the -- the politicizing of this issue. So, many in the Republican Congress feel as if the ATF is not their friend, but their enemy. Part of -- part of the -- the story I was telling...

COOPER: You said this issue should be politicized, though.

OBAMA: Well, but what I mean by that, Anderson, is, is that they have been portrayed as trying to take people's guns away, as opposed to

OBAMA: ... part of this story....

COOPER: ... the sentence (ph) shouldn't be politicized though.

OBAMA: Well, what I mean by that, Anderson, is that they have been portrayed as trying to take people's guns away, as opposed to trying to make sure that the laws are enforced. And, one of the most frustrating things that I hear is when people say -- who are opposed to any further laws, why don't you just enforce the laws that are on the books, and those very same members of Congress then cut a ATF budgets to make it impossible to enforce the law.

(APPLAUSE)

... and, so, it is -- and, by the way, the ATF a law enforcement agency working under the FBI that is doing enormous work in going after criminals, and drug cartels, and have a pretty dangerous job, so, it's not as if doing background checks, or auditing gun sales is all that they're doing. Part of my proposal is also developing better technologies so that we can do tracing of shells when a crime is committed in order to figure out who exactly are the perpetrators of the crime, and where exactly they obtained the weapon.

So, there's a whole bunch of other elements to this that are going to be important.

But, my hope is that responsible gun dealers like yourself, and your organization are going to be supportive of this proposal because it should actually help push away unscrupulous dealers. That means more customers for you guys.

COOPER: I want to bring in Mark Kelly, as you know, former astronaut, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who we're proud to say is here tonight. Five years ago this week, in Tucson, Arizona, Congresswoman Giffords was shot, six others were killed. Captain, your question?

QUESTION: Thank you for being here, Mr. President. As you know, Gabby and I are both gun owners, we take gun ownership very seriously. And, you know, really think about the voices of responsible gun owners in this debate.

But, I want to follow up to something Father Pfleger said, and you answer to his question. And, it's about expanded background checks. Often what you hear in the debate of expanding background checks to more gun sales, and, as you know, Gabby and I are 100% behind the concept of somebody getting a background check before buying a gun.

But, when we testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we heard not only from the gun lobby, but from United States Senators that expanding background checks will, not may, will lead to a registry, which will lead to confiscation, which will lead to a tyrannical government.

So, I would like you to explain with 350 million guns in 65 million places, households, from Key West, to Alaska, 350 million objects in 65 million places, if the Federal government wanted to confiscate those objects, how would they do that?

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Well, look, first of all, everytime I see Gabby I'm just so thrilled because I visited her in the hospital, and, as I mentioned, I think, in the speech in the White House, as we left the hospital then to go to a memorial service, we got word that Gabby had opened her eyes for the first time.

And, we did not think she was going to be here, and she is, and Mark's just been extraordinary.

And, by the way, Mark's twin brothers up in space right now, and is breaking the record for the longest continuous orbiting of the planet, which is pretty impressive stuff.

What I think Mark is alluding to is what I said earlier, this notion of a conspiracy out there, and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the Federal government.

Now, there's a long history of that, that's in our DNA, you know? The United States was born suspicious of some distant authority...

COOPER: ... now, let me just jump in here, is it fair to call it a conspiracy...

OBAMA: ... well, yeah...

COOPER: ... because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they just don't...

OBAMA: ... no...

COOPER: ... they just don't trust you.

OBAMA: I'm sorry, Cooper, yes. It is fair to call the conspiracy, what are you saying? Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that we can impose martial law...

COOPER: ... not everybody, but there's certainly a lot of...

OBAMA: ... but a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy! I would hope that would agree with that.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Is that controversial? Except on some website...

COOPER: There are -- there are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to get -- go further and further and further down this road.

OBAMA: Well, look, I mean, I'm only going to be here for another year. I don't know -- when -- when would I have started on this enterprise, right?

I come from the state of Illinois, which we've been talking about Chicago, but downstate Illinois is closer to Kentucky than it is to Chicago. And everybody hunts down there. And a lot of folks own guns. And so this is not, like, alien territory to me. I've got a lot of friends, like Mark, who are hunters. I just came back from Alaska where I ate a moose that had just been shot, and it was pretty good.

So, yes, it is -- it is a false notion that I believe is circulated for either political reasons or commercial reasons in order to prevent a coming-together among people of goodwill to develop commonsense rules that will make us safer while preserving the Second Amendment.

And the notion that we can't agree on some things while not agreeing on others, and the reason for that is because, "Well, the president secretly wants to do X," would mean that we'd be paralyzed about doing everything. I mean, maybe when I propose to make sure that, you know, unsafe drugs are taken off the market that secretly I'm trying to control the entire drug industry or take people's drugs away, but probably not. What's more likely is I just want to make sure that people are not dying by taking bad drugs.

COOPER: You wrote an op-ed that just got published.

OBAMA: Yes.

COOPER: A lot of people probably have not read it yet. One of the things you say in it is that you are not going to campaign for, vote for any candidate, regardless of what party they are in, if they do not support commonsense gun reform.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Yes. I meant what I said. And the reason -- the reason I said that is this. The majority of people in this country are a lot more sensible than what you see in Washington. And the reason that Washington doesn't work well in part is because the loudest, shrillest voices, the least compromising, the most powerful, or those with the most money have the most influence.

And the way Washington changes is when people vote. And the way we break the deadlock on this issue is when Congress does not have just a stranglehold on this debate -- or, excuse me, the NRA does not have a stranglehold on Congress in this debate...

(APPLAUSE)

... but it is balanced by a whole bunch of folks, gun-owners, law enforcement, the majority of the American people, when their voices are heard, then things get done.

The proposals that we've put forward are a version -- a lawful, more narrow version of what was proposed by Joe Manchin and Senator Toomey of Pennsylvania, a Republican and a Democrat, both of whom get straight A scores from the NRA. And somehow after Newtown that did not pass the Senate. The majority of senators wanted it, but 90 percent of Republicans voted against it. And I'll be honest with you. Ninety percent of those senators didn't disagree with the proposal, but they were fearful that it was going to affect them during the election.

So all I'm saying is, is that this debate will not change and get balanced out so that lawful gun-owners and their Second Amendment rights are protected, but we're also creating a pathway towards a safer set of communities, it's not going to change until those who are concerned about violence are not as focused and disciplined during election time as those who are.

And, you know, I'm going to throw my shoulders behind folks who want to actually solve problems instead of just, you know, getting a high score from an interest group.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: We have -- we have time for one more question.

And we talked about Chicago a little bit. We haven't really heard from young people tonight -- no offense to those who have spoken.

(LAUGHTER)

Because I'm in the same category as you all.

Sorry, Father.

But there's a lot of kids...

OBAMA: You're a kid.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: There's a lot kids, as you know, growing up in Chicago, fearful of walking to school; fearful of coming home from school.

OBAMA: Yeah.

COOPER: A lot of kids have been killed on buses. There's a lot of moms of kids who have been killed on the streets of Chicago. And I want you to meet Trey Bosley. He's 18 years old. He's a high school student whose brother Terrell was shot and killed nearly 10 years ago while he was helping a friend in a church parking lot. Terrell would have turned 28 years old on this Tuesday.

What's your question, Trey?

QUESTION: Yeah, as you said, I lost my brother a few years ago -- well, 10 years ago. And I've also lost a countless amount of family members and friends to gun violence as well.

And just speaking on growing up as a young black teen in Chicago, where you're surrounded by not only just gun violence, but police brutality as well, most of us aren't thinking about life on a long-term scale. Most of us are thinking day to day, hour to hour, for some even minute to minute.

I wanted to thank you for your stand against gun violence for not only the victims of gun violence, but those on the verge of being victims of gun violence. And my question to you is: What is your advice to those growing up surrounded by poverty and gun violence?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, Terrell (sic), I couldn't be prouder -- and I know -- is that your mom next to you? I know she's proud of you right now. So good job, mom.

You know, when I see you, Terrell (sic), I think about my own...

COOPER: Trey.

OBAMA: Excuse me -- Trey. When I see you, I think about my own youth, because I wasn't that different from you. Probably not as articulate and maybe more of a goof-off. But the main difference was I lived in a more forgiving environment. If I screwed up, I wasn't at risk of getting shot. I'd get a second chance. There were a bunch of folks who were looking out for me, and there weren't a lot of guns on the streets.

And that's how all kids should be growing up wherever they live. I mean, my main advice to you is to continue to be an outstanding role model for the young ones who are coming up behind you; keep listening to your mom; work hard and get an education; understand that high school and whatever peer pressure or restrictions you're under right now won't matter by the time you're a full adult, and what matters is your future.

But what I also want to say to you is that you're really important to the future of this country. And I think it is critical in this debate to understand that it's not just inner city kids who are at risk in these situations. Out of the 30,000 deaths due to gun violence, about two-thirds of them are actually suicides.

Now, that's part of the reason why we are investing more heavily also in mental health under my proposal. But while the majority of victims of gun homicide are black or Hispanic, the overwhelming majority of suicides by young people are white. And those, too, are tragedies. Those, too, are preventable.

I'm the father of two outstanding young women, but being a teenager is tough. And, you know, we all remember, you know, the times where you get confused. You're angry. And then next thing you know, if you have access to a firearm, what kind of bad decisions you might make. So, those are deaths we also want to prevent.

Accidental shootings are also deaths we want to prevent. And we're not going to prevent all of them. But we can do better. We're not going to through this initiative alone solve all the problems of inner city crime. Some of that, as I said, has to do with investing in these communities and making sure there's good education and jobs and opportunity.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- and, you know, great parents and moral responsibility and ethical behavior, and instilling that in our kids. That's gonna be important.

So -- so this is not a proposal to solve every problem. It's a modest way of us getting started on improving the prospects of young men and young women like you, the same way we try to improve every other aspect of our lives.

That's all it is, and if we get started -- as I said before, used to be people didn't wear seat belts, didn't have air bags. It takes 20, 30 years, but you look, and you -- then you realize, all these amazing lives of young people like this, who are contributing to our society because we came together in a practical way, looking at evidence, looking at data, and figured out, how can we make that work better?

Right now, Congress prohibits us even studying, through the Center for Disease Control, ways in which we could reduce gun violence. That's how crazy this thing has become. Let's at least figure out what works.

And some of the proposals that I'm making may turn out -- are not as effective as others. But at least let's figure it out. Let's try some things. Let's just not assume that, every few weeks, there's a mass shooting that gets publicity.

Every few months, there's one that gets national publicity. Every day, there are a whole bunch of folks shot on streets around the country that we don't even hear about. That is -- that is not something that we can be satisfied with.

And -- and part of my faith and hope in America is just that -- not -- not that we achieve a perfect union, but that we get better. And we can do better than we're doing right now, if we come together.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

COOPER: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time.

OBAMA: Thank you...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I want to thank everybody here who took part, everyone who made this vital conversation possible. President Obama, all our guests, George Mason University, everyone. The conversation continues now with CNN's Jake Tapper.

Thank you.

OBAMA: Thank you, guys.

COOPER: Thank you very much. Really an honor, sir.

END

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/07/politics/transcript-obama-town-hall-guns-in-america/ [with non-YouTube version of the YouTube next below embedded]

*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HrBR_kXIHw [with comments] [also at e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19wvTNFobKs (no comments yet), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Srcx-YOHU (with comments)]


*


How the conversation continued after the guns town hall

Published on Jan 8, 2016 by CNN [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCupvZG-5ko_eiXAupbDfxWw / http://www.youtube.com/user/CNN , http://www.youtube.com/user/CNN/videos ]

After President Obama left, the conversation didn't stop on Thursday night. Brooke Baldwin talked to attendees and listened in as the debate continued.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjgis1nLDjk [with comments]


*


Hugh Hewitt on 'Guns in America' with Jake Tapper on CNN

Published on Jan 8, 2016 by Hugh Hewitt Show [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW33N9SmALr7JKOFdew8gxg / http://www.youtube.com/user/thehughhewittshow , http://www.youtube.com/user/thehughhewittshow/videos ]

CNN held a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama to talk about gun control. Hugh Hewitt joins Jack Tapper's panel after the event to talk about Guns in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICO7sixsPY [with comments]


--


Ed Schultz News and Commentary: Friday the 8th of January

Published on Jan 8, 2016 by Ed Schultz [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC74VHgJTqFXXsmcbffHyYiQ , http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC74VHgJTqFXXsmcbffHyYiQ/videos ]

On Friday’s show, Ed gives commentary on President Obama’s town hall event about guns in America. We are joined by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, to discuss what can be done to curb gun violence in the United States. We are also joined by Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen‘s Global Trade Watch, to discuss TransCanada suing the United States for $15 billion due to rejection of Keystone XL pipeline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exnlEd6FVKg [with comments]


--


Full Show: National State Of Emergency - 01/08/2015

Published on Jan 8, 2016 by The Alex Jones Channel

On this Friday, January 8 edition of the Alex Jones Show we cover calls for the Obama administration to declare a national state of emergency to gut the Second Amendment, asylum seekers committing violence in Germany, converting social media into a national security state informer network, the collapse of the stock market in 2016, and other important stories. On today’s broadcast we talk with Canadian blogger and security analyst Stefan Molyneux, attorney Stephen Pidgeon on articles of impeachment against Obama, and financial newsletter writer and author Harry Dent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N9dj3SBk_c [with comments]


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