Obama to Pitch New Gun Control Measures at Town Hall Meeting
- VOA News
- Jan 7, 2016
- 2 min read
His cheek wet with tears, President Barack Obama President Barack Obama recalls the 20 first-graders killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, while speaking in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
U.S. President Barack Obama is making a new pitch to the public Thursday night to win support for his executive orders to tighten controls on gun ownership, holding a nationally televised town hall-style meeting on the contentious issue.
Obama is sitting down with CNN's Anderson Cooper to take questions from a live audience at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington. The event is not truly open to the public, however. The university said the television network selected both gun-control advocates and those opposed to more regulation to attend and ask Obama questions.
The president announced a series of measures affecting both gun sellers and buyers earlier this week in an emotional appearance at the White House, where he wiped away tears while remembering the victims of gun violence in the U.S. The new rules tighten licensing procedures for those who sell firearms, and requirements for background checks before purchasers can acquire weapons.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the goal of the town hall meeting is for Obama "to engage with both people who support his position on gun safety, but also to have a conversation with those who don't agree with some of the president's positions on these issues."
The National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun rights group, has declined to participate in the meeting.
Republican lawmakers who rejected Obama's attempts to tighten gun regulations in 2013 say the president overstepped his authority by issuing the new rules, which they contend will not help reduce the number of violent crimes involving guns.
The issue of gun control has sharply divided the American public. A CNN/ORC poll conducted in mid-December found 48 percent of respondents favored stricter gun control laws, while 51 percent opposed them.
Americans' right to possess guns is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and authorities estimate there are about 300 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. - nearly equal to the country's population, 322 million. Many gun owners have more than one weapon available for hunting or target shooting, however, so only about one-third of U.S. households include at least one person with a gun.
Guns are involved in about 32,000 deaths every year in the United States. About 60 percent of those deaths are suicides; about 3 percent are accidental deaths and the rest are homicides.
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