Skip to content

Obama to Unveil Gun Plan Wednesday

President Barack Obama will unveil around noon Wednesday a plan to reduce gun violence that includes legislative proposals and executive actions, Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed at his Tuesday briefing.

“The president and the vice president will hold an event here at the White House to unveil a package of concrete proposals to reduce gun violence and prevent future tragedies like the one in Newtown, Conn.,” said Carney, in an event he estimated would start at 11:45 a.m.

“I will not get ahead of the president, in terms of what his package of proposals will include. I will simply note that the president has made clear that he intends to take a comprehensive approach,” Carney said.

“He has also made clear that there are specific legislative actions that he will continue to call on Congress to take — including the assault weapons ban, including a measure to ban high-capacity magazine clips, including an effort to close the very big loopholes in the background check system in our country,” he added.

Carney did not speculate on what executive actions Obama might take, but he added that “it is a simple fact that there are limits on what can be done within existing law. And Congress has to act on the kinds of measures that we’ve already mentioned, because the power to do that is reserved by Congress and to Congress.”

When asked about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s statements in an interview Friday that he will not push legislation through the Senate that cannot pass the House, Carney said Obama will not prejudge what Congress can do.

“The fact of the matter is the president’s committed to pushing these proposals. He is not naive about the challenges that exist, but he believes that, as he said yesterday, if even one child’s life can be saved by the actions we take here in Washington, we must take those actions,” Carney said.

Carney added that children who wrote to the president in the wake of the school shootings last month in Newtown will be in attendance.

Plans for a Wednesday announcement were mentioned earlier by Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a freshman who represents Newtown. Esty appeared at a Tuesday morning news conference with Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California.

Esty is a member of a House task force established by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and led by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., that met with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at the White House on Monday.

Esty said the House Democrats at the meeting were not provided details on all of the executive actions under consideration for the plan that will be unveiled by Obama and that the final outlines of the plan had not been approved by Obama when their meeting with Biden took place.

Recent Stories

Photos of the week ending October 11, 2024

Helene, Milton wreckage puts spotlight on disaster loan program

Trump pitches tax write-off for auto loans in Detroit speech

Biden forced to put legacy push on hold as crises mount at home and abroad

At the Races: Weary of the storm

FEC to consider clarifying what joint fundraising committees can pay for in political ads