Executive orders leave Valley gun dealers, officials skeptical

Staff/wire report

YOUNGSTOWN

Tears streaking his cheeks, President Barack Obama launched a final-year push Tuesday to tighten sales of firearms in the U.S., using his presidential powers in the absence of tougher gun restrictions that Congress has refused to pass.

But some Youngstown-area gun dealers and police say the result will be a bigger black market for guns – or no change at all.

“I support everything our leaders do to try to help, but no matter what legislation we pass, bad guys will always try to get their hands on guns,” said Campbell Police Chief Drew Rauzan. Though he appreciates that the president wants to do something to help, Rauzan said there is no way to ever keep a gun out of the hands of someone who wants one.

The president struck a combative tone as he came out with plans for expanded background checks and other modest measures that have drawn consternation from gun-rights groups, which Obama accused of making Congress their hostage. Palpable, too, was Obama’s extreme frustration at having made such little progress on gun control since the slaughter of 20 first-graders in Connecticut confronted the nation more than three years ago.

“First-graders,” Obama said woefully, resting his chin on his hand and wiping away tears as he recalled the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.”

Obama’s 10-point plan to keep guns from those who shouldn’t have them marked a concession by the president: He’ll leave office without securing the new gun-control laws he’s repeatedly and desperately implored Congress to pass.

Although Obama, acting alone, can take action around the margins, only Congress can enact more-sweeping changes that gun-control advocates say are the only way to truly stem a scourge of mass shootings.

“It won’t happen overnight,” Obama said. “It won’t happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency.” But, he added optimistically, “a lot of things don’t happen overnight.”

The centerpiece of Obama’s plan is an attempt to narrow the loophole that exempts gun sales from background checks if the seller isn’t a federal registered dealer. The administration is clarifying that even those who sell just a few weapons at gun shows, flea markets or online can be deemed dealers and be required to conduct checks on prospective buyers.

Whether that step can make a significant dent in unregulated gun sales is an open question.

Millions of guns are sold annually in informal settings outside of gun shops, including many through private sales arranged online. The Obama administration acknowledged it couldn’t quantify how many gun sales would be newly subjected to background checks, nor how many currently unregistered gun sellers would have to obtain a license.

Mike Miller of Miller Rod and Gun on Youngstown-Poland Road isn’t too fond of the guys at gun shows selling guns with no paperwork and he would like to see them stopped, but he wants to see more outlining of the details in the president’s plan.

“I am for stopping anyone who has the intention of killing,” Miller said. “The only time these laws apply is to noncriminal people.”

Miller contends the criminal doesn’t come into the shop to buy a gun but instead gets it off the street. He believes this plan will create a bigger black market for guns.

“I don’t know the effect on the business,” Miller said. “It looks like it will affect the people at gun shows more. The big issue here is our rights that are guaranteed to us are being circumvented and eliminated.”

As far as background checks go, Miller thinks they are functional.

“It generally does not let criminals buy,” he said.

Miller has seen an uptick at the business and so has Ron Oldland, owner of Expert Outfitters on Market Street in North Lima.

“What we have seen is an influx of normal people just scared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Oldland said. “People are just worried that they will not be able to protect themselves.”

Oldland isn’t sure how his business will be affected by the executive order. He believes there should be better enforcement of licensed selling.

“I don’t see it changing a thing really,” Oldland said. “[Licensing] just needs to be enforced.”

Easily reversible by a future president, the government’s guidance to gun sellers lacks the legal oomph of a new law, such as the one Obama and likeminded lawmakers tried but failed to pass in 2013. The Justice Department said online the guidance “has no regulatory effect and is not intended to create or confer any rights, privileges, or benefits in any matter, case, or proceeding.”

What’s more, none of the steps would have probably prevented any of the recent mass shootings that Obama invoked in the East Room: Aurora, Oak Creek, Charleston, Newtown, to name some. But Obama defiantly rejected that critique, dismissing it as the tired trope of gun lobbyists who question, “why bother trying?”

“I reject that thinking,” Obama said. “We maybe can’t save everybody, but we could save some.”

Obama readily conceded the executive steps will be challenged in court, a prediction quickly echoed by Republicans.

Chuck James, a former federal prosecutor who practices firearms law at the firm Williams Mullen, said opponents are likely to challenge Obama’s authority to define what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns beyond what’s laid out in the law. The White House asserted confidence Obama was acting legally, and said Justice Department and White House lawyers had worked diligently to ensure the steps were watertight.

Other new steps include 230 new examiners the FBI will hire to process background checks, aiming to prevent delays that enabled the accused gunman in Charleston, S.C., to get a gun when the government took too long.

Obama also is asking the government to research smart gun technology to reduce accidental shootings and asking Congress for $500 million to improve mental health care. Other provisions aim to better track lost or stolen guns and prevent trusts or corporations from buying dangerous weapons without background checks.

The National Rifle Association, the largest gun group, panned Obama’s plan and said it was “ripe for abuse,” although the group didn’t specify what steps, if any, it will take to oppose or try to block it.