President Barack Obama is considering the use of an executive order to restrict access to guns or ammunition in the wake of nationwide revulsion in the US over the Connecticut school shootings, vice-president Joe Biden said Wednesday.
Such a move would be deeply controversial in the gun lobby, but Biden said the president was determined to explore every legislative avenue.
“The president is going to act,” Biden said in a briefing to reporters before the inaugural meeting of a new national task force on gun control. “Executive order, executive action that can be taken; we haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action, we believe, is required.”
Before meeting with gun safety and victims’ groups, the vice president told reporters that “executive orders” may be an avenue that the administration will use to take swift action on firearms.
“There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken,” he said. “We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”
As the Weekly Standard notes, Biden stressed the importance, in his view, of taking action to curb gun violence. He also said that he is convinced that the government “can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm’s way” — pending officials “act responsibly.”
Even if Obama attempts to take unilateral action, Biden indicated that legislation is still “required.”
Watch the vice president’s comments, below:
(H/T: Weekly Standard)