KTVB
January 9, 2016
By Morgan Boydston
View video here: http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/2016/01/09/sen-crapo-condemns-obamas-executive-order-on-firearms/78564116/
GARDEN CITY – U.S. Senator Mike Crapo made an appearance at Saturday’s gun show at Expo Idaho. A Conservative Republican, Senator Crapo openly criticizes President Obama’s recent executive action on firearms.
“At many different levels the President has consistently undertaken actions to undercut the Second Amendment,” Senator Crapo said at the Lewis Clark Trader Gun Show Saturday morning.
He mingled with Idahoans at the event and discussed why he strongly supports the right to bear arms. He believes the President’s executive order is an overreach of power and is looking to put a stop to what he says is the government’s way of controlling many aspects of American’s private lives.
President Obama announced several executive orders on Tuesday that look to expand background checks and place more restrictions on gun shows. A main focus of the President’s plan is to implement tighter rules on sales done by unlicensed dealers, such as those who sell firearms online and at gun shows. According to NBC News, those new rules would require anyone who sells firearms to obtain a federal seller’s license and check the backgrounds of all their buyers.
Senator Crapo believes this executive order makes it harder for law-abiding, responsible Americans to get their hands on firearms. He tells us that he has been fighting this fight for years with the Obama Administration. The Senator says there is already legislation drafted that would stop this recent executive order.
Crapo argues that the government needs to re-focus their efforts on mental illness, which he claims is the root of the violence we’ve recently seen in our society.
“Frankly, if we will focus on that kind of thing- the earlier and better detection, and better treatment and management of those who have a mental issue that causes them to be dangerous- will be much more effective at dealing with the violence in our society,” Senator Crapo said.
The legislation he’s referring to that he says would stop the President’s executive order clarifies the law under which Obama is trying to fit this order, which allows for people’s names to be put on the National Criminal Background Check, therefore prohibiting them from owning or purchasing firearms. The Senator says the language of that law is vague and President Obama is using it to allow “any executive agency officer” to submit someone’s name to that list.
Crapo tells us he doesn’t want to see people like veterans and senior citizens stripped of their rights and put on a criminal background list because of things like head injuries or age. That directs attention away from the true causes of violence in our country, he says, and undercuts the Second Amendment right to bear arms.