Obama, Biden Announce Firearms Restrictions [Video]

Vice President Joe Biden stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday with the attorney general and the top US firearms official and declared the Obama administration would take two new steps to curb American gun violence according to ABC News.

CBS News reported on the new steps that the Obama administration was planning to take.

“The first (executive) order closes a loophole that allows felons and other people who would be prohibited from owning guns to circumvent the law by registering their guns with a corporation or trust, which would exempt them from the requisite background check.

“The second executive order announced Thursday aims to keep military-grade weapons off the streets by prohibiting private entities from re-importing firearms that the United States previously provided to foreign allies.”

CBS News explains that the first executive order requires individuals associated with trusts and corporations that acquire weapons to undergo background checks just as they would if they registered the guns in their own name.

Vice President Biden said with this new order, the loophole would be “a thing of the past.” Felons and others won’t be able to use that go-around in order to get their hands on a weapon that they shouldn’t have in the first place.

CBS News explains that the second executive order institutes a new policy of denying requests to bring military-grade firearms back to the United States. A few private entities, like museums, are exempted from the new restriction.

Gun violence is a hot topic, and according to ABC News, this is what Biden had to say:

“If Congress won’t act, we’ll fight for a new Congress. It’s that simple. But we’re going to get this done.”

“It’s simple, it’s straightforward, it’s common sense,” Biden said of the firearms restrictions he unveiled Thursday as he swore in Obama’s new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Todd Jones.

See the video below for more of Biden’s announcement on the Obama administrations firearms restrictions:

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]