{"id":639508,"date":"2013-01-16T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T00:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/serkadis.com\/index\/?guid=aaab21300d90e3fe7452d8392a54f579"},"modified":"2013-01-16T19:12:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T00:12:00","slug":"obamas-executive-actions-on-guns-better-than-his-legislative-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/639508","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Executive Actions on Guns Better Than His Legislative Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ilya Shapiro<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re all still digesting what it is the White House\u2019s plan on gun policy is, but here\u2019s my initial assessment, not having gone through what technical language is available.<\/p>\n<p>President Obama\u2019s <a title=\"http:\/\/www.theatlanticwire.com\/national\/2013\/01\/obama-executive-action-guns-obamacare\/61079\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlanticwire.com\/national\/2013\/01\/obama-executive-action-guns-obamacare\/61079\">23 executive actions<\/a> generally take positive steps towards stopping gun violence \u2013 such as improving the background check system and increasing enforcement of gun crime \u2013 though I have federalism or privacy concerns about a few of them.<\/p>\n<p>His legislative proposals, however \u2013 banning \u201cassault weapons\u201d and restricting magazines to 10 rounds \u2013 are feel-good measures that fail to abide by the principle that should guide any lawmaking in this area: keeping guns out of the hands of those who would do ill while protecting law-abiding citizens\u2019 constitutional rights to armed self-defense.&nbsp; The guns that the Newtown shooter used, for example, complied with Connecticut\u2019s extremely strict \u201cassault weapon\u201d ban and, in any event, the vast majority of murders are committed with handguns.<\/p>\n<p>On both sets of actions, the devil will be in the details:&nbsp; How will the relevant executive branch officials and agencies implement the new actions<span style=\"line-height: 1.3em;\">?&nbsp; Will the proposed \u201cassault weapon\u201d restrictions ban ordinary rifles that simply come with a pistol grip or other cosmetic feature (like the New York law that Gov. Cuomo signed earlier in the week)? &nbsp;And that\u2019s before we even get to the feasibility of getting anything through Congress or whether the president is willing to negotiate to get at least some of what he wants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Finally, this national action isn\u2019t the end of the story: our constitutional structure leaves to states most of the power to regulate in this area. &nbsp;On that score, and befitting a federal system meant to reflect different political preferences, states have been moving <a title=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\/multimedia\/media-highlights-tv\/ilya-shapiro-discusses-gun-control-state-level-nbc-nightly-news\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\/multimedia\/media-highlights-tv\/ilya-shapiro-discusses-gun-control-state-level-nbc-nightly-news\">in different directions<\/a> \u2013 from allowing concealed-carry to increasing tort liability to posting armed guards in schools. &nbsp;So long as states and local authorities don\u2019t violate individual Second Amendment rights, the federal government ought to encourage that kind of policy innovation.<\/p>\n<p>See also Tim Lynch\u2019s <a title=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\/multimedia\/daily-podcast\/obamas-gun-control-agenda\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\/multimedia\/daily-podcast\/obamas-gun-control-agenda\">podcast<\/a> on Obama\u2019s gun control agenda.<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?i=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?i=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:l6gmwiTKsz0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?d=l6gmwiTKsz0\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?i=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.cato.org\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?a=P5lVcda1oXU:UEOl-Ifo8H0:dnMXMwOfBR0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Cato-at-liberty?d=dnMXMwOfBR0\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/Cato-at-liberty\/~4\/P5lVcda1oXU\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ilya Shapiro We\u2019re all still digesting what it is the White House\u2019s plan on gun policy is, but here\u2019s my initial assessment, not having gone through what technical language is available. President Obama\u2019s 23 executive actions generally take positive steps towards stopping gun violence \u2013 such as improving the background check system and increasing enforcement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-639508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}