Obama challenges Congress to pass new gun regulations

• President Obama proposes broad gun-safety agenda
• Obama lays out deepest overhaul of firearms regulations since the LBJ administration
• Measures would include banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines

Washington -- In a sweeping second-term gamble that puts the White House at the center of the nation's divisive gun debate, President Obama laid out a gun-safety agenda that calls on America — and Congress — to get behind a dramatic plan that he believes can help stem gun violence.

The president on Wednesday challenged lawmakers, many of whom are tepid at best to the idea of major gun reform, to pass the deepest overhaul of firearms regulations since the Lyndon Johnson administration. Meanwhile, Obama vowed to spend considerable political capital on an explosive policy issue that he's largely avoided much of his first term.

At the heart of his agenda are calls to close background-check loopholes, make schools safer, increase access to mental health services and, most controversial, ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. All are measures that will require congressional action, and all face a level of opposition from some lawmakers — on both sides of the political aisle — and gun rights groups.

The president arrived at this moment in the wake of several mass shootings in recent years, from a political event in Tucson to a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., to the numbing tragedy at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. It was this last unthinkable act — a gunman mowing down 20 children and six educators — that provided the urgency culminating in Wednesday's announcement.

Yet, Obama faces a difficult climb to make his vision on gun control reality.

Even some of the 23 executive actions he proposed will face scrutiny from gun rights groups and their advocates in Congress who have already suggested they will use their considerable sway to block funding. All went into motion with his signature on Wednesday, but some face an unclear timeline on implementation.

Despite the considerable opposition and the daunting political path ahead of him, Obama vowed to make gun control a centerpiece issue as he begins his second term.

"I will put everything I've got into this, and so will Joe," Obama said, referring to Vice President Biden, who stood beside him at the White House event.

Gun rights advocates lambasted the plan as overreach, while gun-control advocates largely praised the president's proposal as bold and ambitious.

The administration's carefully choreographed announcement of the proposal was the culmination of a month-long press following the Newtown school shooting. Among those in the audience for the announcement was the family of Grace McDonnell, 7, one of the slain children to whom Obama paid tribute.

"When it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, we must act now, for Grace, for the 25 other innocent children and devoted educators who had so much left to give," Obama said.

Biden helped develop the plan after conducting a series of meetings with 229 groups involved in gun-violence issues. The president and vice president appeared at the presentation with four children who wrote letters to the White House expressing concern about gun violence after the Connecticut massacre.

Obama vowed to use "whatever weight this office holds" to make his gun-safety proposals a reality, but he put the onus on Congress, which he said will have to act if there is to be meaningful change.

He also sought to put voter pressure on the powerful National Rifle Association and, in particular, its supporters in Congress.

"Ask them what's more important: Doing whatever it takes to get an A grade from the gun lobby that funds their campaigns? Or giving parents some piece of mind when they drop their child off to first grade?"

The NRA responded in a statement that "only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected" by Obama's gun proposal. The group added "our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy."

The tough road

Some proposals will face stiff opposition in Congress, especially in the Republican-run House of Representatives. GOP lawmakers offered little to suggest that Obama's push would compel them to act.

"House committees of jurisdiction will review these recommendations," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "And if the Senate passes a bill, we will also take a look at that."

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said he will consider Obama's recommendations but questioned the wisdom of the plan.

"Good intentions do not necessarily make good laws," Goodlatte said. He said he wants to ensure that the proposals will "actually be meaningful in preventing the taking of innocent life and that they do not trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights."

The toughest fight Obama faces might be over his call for the re-implementing the assault weapons ban. A ban on such weapons was first passed into the law in 1994, but it expired in 2004. Obama has long backed a move to reinstate a ban, but there's been little political will to get it back on the books.

Even after last month's tragedy in Connecticut, where the gunman used a military-style Bushmaster rifle loaded with 30 rounds and had more high-capacity clips at the ready, Americans remain opposed to such a ban. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll last month showed that 51% oppose outlawing assault weapons, while 44% support it.

Perhaps of more concern to the president are comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggesting that the ban has little chance of getting through Congress. Reid, who has opposed an assault weapons ban in the past, has been praised by the NRA for backing legislation that limits lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers.

"Let's be realistic. In the Senate, we're going to do what we think can get through the House," Reid, the top Senate Democrat, told a Nevada PBS station over the weekend. "And I'm not going to be going through a bunch of these gyrations just to say we've done something because if we're really legislators, the purpose of it is to pass legislation."

Picking his fights

The White House insists that the call to reinstitute the ban is not a pie-in-the-sky effort and suggests that Obama will lean into it with vigor.

However, even some supporters of reinstating a ban say a hard push by Obama is not without risks, and the president might be best served by putting his political capital into measures such as instituting universal background checks, cracking down on gun trafficking and improving data collection and sharing among federal agencies. (In 2011, the FBI reported that nationally there were 6,220 homicides in which handguns were used and 323 homicides with a rifle, of which assault rifles are a subset.)

Assault weapons "are not firearms that anyone needs or should have, but we don't think it will have much impact on gun crime, while other things the president proposes will," said Matt Bennett, a senior vice president at the centrist Democratic group Third Way. "I worry that it's going to dominate the debate when it shouldn't. It's the tail wagging the dog."

Larry Pratt, executive director of the group Gun Owners of America, even chafes at the White House's use of the term "assault weapons." He says they are "defensive weapons" that people are entitled to have to "defend themselves and their property." People are also entitled to have high-capacity magazines, Pratt said.

Obama counters that the combination of the "military-style" semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines have enabled shooters to kill more people quicker, at venues ranging from the elementary school in Connecticut to that movie theater in Colorado.

And while some polls show that most Americans remain resistant to a ban on assault weapons, the White House seems buoyed by polling that suggests Americans are broadly open to more restrictive gun laws in the aftermath of the Connecticut shooting.

Background checks?

Gun rights groups have also criticized proposals for "universal background checks" as a back-door way to a national gun registration system that could lead to confiscation.

"You don't trust governments," Pratt said. "And it doesn't solve crimes."

Universal background checks would also be hard to enforce because they involve private sellers, some of whom might not want to report transactions — a problem that the Obama plan seems to anticipate.

In a written report, the administration says that "private sellers can already choose to sell their guns through licensed dealers so the dealer can run a background check on the buyer, and the Administration is calling on them to do so. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will send an open letter to licensed dealers giving them guidance on how best to facilitate these checks."

Obama may have a better chance with Republicans when it comes to mental health. Some GOP lawmakers said mass shootings result more from psychological factors than the availability of guns, an indication that this might be an area of common ground.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., a doctor as well as a House member, said, "As we review how best to prevent mass shootings and the loss of innocent lives, we should make a robust analysis of America's mental health system a priority."

While gun-control advocates generally reacted positively to the Obama plan, some on the political left criticized the president's call to hire up to 1,000 school resource officers and school-based mental health professionals.

This could "lead to the overincarceration of school-age children, especially students of color and students with disabilities, who are disproportionately arrested and prosecuted for issues that would normally be handled by school administrators when law enforcement is introduced into schools," said Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberty Union's Washington Legislative Office.

Beyond his calls for congressional action, Obama signed 23 executive actions that will not need congressional approval, but even some of those actions could be blocked by Congress. In an interview with CNN last week, NRA President David Keene hinted that the group might lobby lawmakers to use the power of the purse to take the teeth out of executive action the group objects to.

"Some things you can do by executive orders, and some things you can't do by executive orders," Keene said. "And some things that you do do by executive orders need money to be implemented, and that's up to Congress."

Obama, for his part, called on Americans to question lawmakers on where they stand on some of the most divisive issues, including a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks:

"The only way we can change is if the American people demand it."

Contributing: Jackie Kucinich and Gregory Korte