Obama move to curb gun violence draws strong reactions from Nevadans

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday a series of executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence, eliciting strong reactions on both sides of the gun debate.

Obama outlined the executive action in four parts, intended to expand background checks to more private sales, beef up enforcement, increase resources for mental health and begin research and development of smart gun technology.

Gun control advocates said Obama's actions are meaningful, but gun rights advocates said the president is acting beyond his legal authority.

Las Vegans Jacob and Darchel Mohler traveled to Washington to watch the announcement in the White House. Their daughter, 13-year-old Brooklynn Mae Mohler, was at a friend's home when she was unintentionally shot and killed with an unsecured gun on June 4, 2013. The couple founded the Brooklyn Mae Mohler Foundation to raise awareness about responsible gun storage shortly after Brooklyn's death.

"It was so powerful and moving," Darchel Mohler said.

Her husband said he especially appreciated Obama's remarks about keeping guns out of the hands of children.

"That's how our daughter was lost," Jacob Mohler said. "I think they're all more common sense than anti-gun."

The executive action includes a directive to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to finalize rules that require background checks for people trying to buy guns through a trust or corporation, or other legal entity. It also mandates that dealers who ship firearms notify law enforcement if their guns are lost or stolen in transit.

The president's budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 will include funding for 200 new ATF agents and investigators to help enforce gun laws, according to the White House.

The FBI is going to revamp its system for processing background checks, moving to working on them 24 hours a day and hiring more than 230 additional staffers. U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch issued a memo encouraging every U.S. attorney's office to renew domestic violence outreach efforts, and the White House is proposing a $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care.

The Social Security Administration has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to be able to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons, and the Department of Health and Human Services is finalizing a rule to remove legal barriers that prevent states from reporting some information about prohibited people, according to the White House.

The Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security were directed to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology, which includes guns that use fingerprints to verify ownership.

Presidential authority

UCLA constitutional law specialist Adam Winkler, the author of "Gunfight: the Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America," said the actions Obama announced Tuesday fall within the president's authority.

"This is the worst case for 'executive overreach.' The administration has just done very little," Winkler said. "In part that's because he chose them so they couldn't be overturned."

Winkler said the focus on prosecutions of illegal gun traffickers and updating the FBI's system for running background checks is "absolutely essential" as the agency now processes about 20 millions checks per year.

Rather than continuing to focus on the number of guns sold per month to establish whether a person is a dealer or a hobbyist, prosecutors have been instructed to look at additional factors including how soon the gun was sold after the person received it and if it was in its original packaging.

"We need a more nuanced approach," he said.

In November, Nevada voters will decide whether to expand required gun background checks to private sales and transfers.

Don Turner, president of the Nevada Firearms Coalition, said he's skeptical about the how effective Obama's executive action will prove to be. And it will definitely affect the messaging of his campaign against the ballot measure.

"My cynical side says it's a bunch of to-do about nothing," he said. "I think the net results are going to be nothing."

Turner also wondered what the point of adopting more gun control laws in Nevada law would be when the federal government is already doing it.

"We will probably use it against the ballot initiative," he said.

Joe Duffy, campaign manager for the gun control advocacy group Nevadans for Background Checks, said the president's actions are important, but the background check ballot initiative is still needed to close "dangerous loopholes." States that have gone beyond federal background check laws have seen less gun violence, he said.

Nevada lawmaker reaction

While Obama called for Americans on both sides of the political spectrum to come together to find a solution to gun violence, reactions from Nevada politicians largely fell along partisan lines.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Rep. Dina Titus expressed support for the president's approach.

"These are important first steps in fighting the epidemic of gun violence that has engulfed our nation, and they consist of reforms that are widely supported by the American people," Reid said.

"Expanding and enhancing the federal background check system, investing in greater access to mental health and putting more law enforcement agents on the streets are common sense actions that will help make our country safer."

He also called on Republicans to stand up to the National Rifle Association.

"The president has acted. Now it is Congress' turn," Reid said.

Titus applauded Obama for "taking this long overdue action."

She called on Congress to act and pointed out she is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill to expand the existing background check system to cover all commercial firearm sales, including those at gun shows, over the Internet or in classified ads while providing reasonable exceptions for family and friend transfers.

Republicans expressed opposition to the president's unilateral approach and have already threatened to block spending on Obama's directives.

"No doubt, steps must be taken to protect our communities from unnecessary violence," Republican Sen. Dean Heller said. "However, it is disappointing the president is again taking unilateral action bypassing Congress. Legislating through executive action is not true leadership."

Republican Rep. Joe Heck agreed that reducing gun violence is critical to keeping communities safe.

"But by once again implementing unilateral executive actions rather than work with Congress, the president has only further polarized the country and reduced the chance of any meaningful solutions to address this issue," Heck said.

The National Rifle Association fired back at the president, saying the fact that Obama waited until his last year in office shows "not only political exploitation but a fundamental lack of seriousness."

Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, dismissed the executive actions as rhetoric.

"The proposed executive actions are ripe for abuse by the Obama Administration, which has made no secret of its contempt for the Second Amendment. The NRA will continue to fight to protect the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under our Constitution. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to become scapegoats for President Obama's failed policies," Cox said.

Review-Journal Washington Bureau writer Jim Myers contributed to this report. Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl