During a U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Senator Chris Murphy defended President Obama’s executive actions on gun violence and called on his colleagues to provide the resources necessary to ensure timely and effective implementation. Wednesday was the first congressional hearing on the President's recently announced executive actions to reduce gun violence.
Murphy said the heart of the debate is a disagreement about what the executive action actually says. He was critical of a perceived intention of what the Administration is planning to do, and called for any objections to be based on the actual text of the executive order. Murphy says agreement should be simple--enforce existing law, require people engaged in the business of selling guns to get licenses wherever they do so, and exclude anyone who is just selling firearms occasionally from their personal collection.
Murphy urged his colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to provide sufficient funding to effectively enforce current law and the new executive actions.
Mark Barden, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, testified at the hearing. Barden’s 7-year-old son Daniel was among the children killed on 12/14.
At the hearing, Attorney General Loretta Lynch laid out budget requests for Fiscal Year 2017, including $35 million to sustain the National Instant Criminal Background Check System expansion, $35.6 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for 200 additional Special Agents and Industry Operations Investigators, and increased resources to help process federal firearms license applications.
