AG duel with Bam gun foes
U.S. ATTORNEY General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday defended President Obama’s executive orders to expand background checks on guns against Republican claims he’s trying to dismantle the Second Amendment.
“I have complete confidence that the common-sense steps announced by the President are lawful,” Lynch said during an appearance before a Senate appropriations subcommittee.
“(They) are all well-reasoned measures, well within existing legal authorities, built on work that’s already underway,” she added. “They clarify laws that are already on the books — because clear notice will help ensure that those laws are followed.”
Republican senators attacked Lynch for justifying the measures, calling them the latest example of executive overreach by Obama and blasting her and the administration for trying to trample the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.
“The department is on notice,” subcommittee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told Lynch. “This subcommittee will have no part in undermining the Constitution and the rights that it protects.”
Shelby said that instead of tightening screening for potentially violent immigrants after December’s mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif., Obama ended up “grandstanding and engaging in anti-gun theatrics.”
Lynch said the President’s actions were needed.
“As the list of tragedies involving firearms has grown, so has the American people’s belief that we must do more to stem the tide of gun violence, and this administration is committed to doing our part,” she said.
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the top Democrat on the panel, backed Lynch.
“We do need to change our nation’s culture of violence. We do need to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands,” she said.
The hearing came just weeks after Obama announced a slew of executive actions designed to tighten regulations surrounding certain gun purchases and curb gun violence.
The new restrictions include background checks for guns bought from dealers online and at gun shows, as well as a mandate for extra staffing and funding for the government agencies that monitor the purchase of firearms.