President Obama is now officially a "lame duck president", having barely a year left to serve in office. This is often a fallow period for US presidents, but Obama has departed from the usual protocol and taken the gun issue to his heart in a way never seen before. In a very moving speech yesterday, he reminded Americans, and the world, that there are 30,000 gun related deaths every year in their nation, and that no other "advanced" country suffers anything like this level of homicidal violence.
As an ex-lawyer he obviously has extensive knowledge of the Constitution and its various amendments. He pointed out that the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but not the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre, in order to protect the innocent; also that privacy is protected, but no one minds going through a metal detector at an airport, for precisely the same reason.
But when he proposes to increase background checks prior to purchasing a gun, to protect the innocent, a very minor step really, suddenly the gun lobby starts shouting about encroachment on freedom. At present you can buy weapons at gun shows without any checks at all, and the same situation obtains when a gun is bought over the internet.
I doubt if Obama's efforts will have any effect on restricting the amount of guns circulating in America. The political right and the very powerful gun lobby (financed, of course, by the gun manufacturers) will make sure any bill is stillborn. But I sure admire him for trying...
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