FOX News First: Jan. 5
By Chris Stirewalt
Buzz Cut:
• Obama’s small ball on guns could be a big deal
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OBAMA’S SMALL BALL ON GUNS COULD BE A BIG DEAL
Is it possible that President Obama’s executive actions on gun control can be both inconsequential and of lasting significance? You bet.
Friend and foe agree that the president’s move to nudge out the definition of a federally licensed firearms dealer doesn’t amount to much as it relates to curbing gun deaths.
Not only did the so-called “gun-show loophole” not play a role in any recent mass shootings, but anyone who was already habitually selling firearms at pawn shops, flea markets, or, yes, gun shows, is already licensed or already in violation of the law.
Leaning harder against those who sell firearms - what Attorney General Loretta Lynch deemed “a clarification” - will not do much, if anything, for what the president promised to do to “spare families the pain and the extraordinary loss” from gun violence.
So, in that way, Obama’s new actions are small beer. Much of his supposedly bold actions relate to directing federal agencies to do better at what they’re already doing. One wonders why he waited so long to think of that...
It’s easy to understand why the president would fancy up these measures as bold steps. For himself, Obama can certainly feel his presidency turning into that thin wisp of smoke from a snuffed candle. As with every year since Obama lost the House for his party in 2010, the president is promising to go it alone.
Obama is preparing to give his last State of the Union address and his longtime rival, Hillary Clinton, is getting ready to finally grasp control of the Democratic Party from him. Six weeks from now, the Obama presidency won’t even be a wisp. It will already be a nostalgia trip.
Aside from trying to show some vigor on an issue he has made a top drawer priority, Obama can also try to hem Clinton in on the subject of guns. She has veered quite a bit on the subject, which promises to be an electoral loser for Democrats this year, and by acting now, he can make her sign on the dotted line.
This is not all kabuki, though.
House Speaker Paul Ryan is doing more than blustering when he accuses the president of “subverting the legislative branch, and potentially overturning its will.”
Think of the president’s actions as a test case for a broader-still executive action on guns. If Obama’s more modest measures outlined today can survive the legal challenges that are sure to follow, he will have broadly redefined what the chief-executive's role is in administering the Second Amendment.
The enumerated restrictions on the federal government in the Bill of Rights get special status. While courts may hold that the executive branch has broad discretion in enforcing environmental regulations, banking rules, or food safety, Mr. Madison’s addition to the charter has created a force-field around certain activities.
Regulate wetland usage, bank sales or raw milk and courts balance the general idea of individual freedoms against the good of the society. Trip into speech, religion, assembly, guns or other enumerated areas and the test changes.
That means courts have struck down, repeatedly, efforts by governments to restrict individuals’ abilities to own firearms. In other cases, courts have demanded at least legislative permission before restrictions have been imposed.
If Obama could win for himself and his successor broader power to regulate the sale of firearms for the executive alone he will have struck a small, but very significant blow in his bid for large-scale gun control. Obama ultimately wants the right to regulate firearms the same way he can regulate the environment, banks and food, and this could be the start.
The path to the kinds of confiscations that Obama has said might be necessary could run through a loophole just like this.
