As new year’s resolutions go, president Barack Obama’s vow to use his executive powers to deal with the epidemic of gun violence in the US is one we hope won’t be forgotten along with most other people’s within a few weeks.
With mass shootings increasing in frequency to more than one a day in 2015, but with Congress refusing to countenance even stopping people on the terrorism no-fly list being able to buy powerful assault rifles, it is clear that his executive authority, even if limited, is the only way he can make progress. He dubbed the issue the “unfinished business” of his presidency.
Mr Obama will meet attorney general Loretta Lynch tomorrow to discuss what can be done at an executive level, based on the findings of White House research into the issue over the past few months. The issue is also expected to feature prominently in his final state of the union speech on January 12.
As Mr Obama acknowledged in his weekly radio address, the gun lobby is "loud and well organised" and gun ownership also has constitutional protection. The level of the gun lobby's political sway was shown in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting three years ago, in which 20 seemingly randomly chosen six- and seven-year-old pupils at a Connecticut school were killed, along with six adults. The attack shocked the world but the US Senate blocked subsequent laws designed to restrict access to assault rifles, limit high-capacity magazines and ensure background checks.
However, the difficulty of the task cannot be a reason not to try. The tobacco lobby was once similarly powerful in the US but was eventually subdued, and there is overwhelming public support for common-sense measures such as background checks. While Mr Obama’s ability to act without the support of Congress is likely to be limited to factors like defining who qualifies as a professional gun dealer and thus has to be licensed, even modest measures will be better than doing nothing.
