WASHINGTON — President Obama is poised to flex his presidential power with an executive order that will single-handedly crack down on gun violence, the vice president promised yesterday.
“The president is going to act,” Vice President Joe Biden vowed as he convened a White House meeting yesterday to work on tough new gun laws in response to the horrific shooting last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken,” said Biden. “We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general.”
The comment set off alarm bells for conservative lawmakers who feared that Obama was about to overstep his authority.
“He is unilaterally taking on the Second Amendment,” fumed Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas). “Where is this going to stop?”
Biden, who is spearheading the White House effort to produce a package of new firearms measures, made the remark as he opened a meeting with gun-control leaders and victims of gun violence.
Obama has given Biden until the end of the month to finish the package.
The vice president acknowledged that legislative action by Congress would be required to pass some gun restrictions. But he insisted that there are steps Obama can take alone.
“It’s critically important that we act,” he said.
Obama could bolster background checks for gun sales by ordering federal agencies — federal courts, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, the Pentagon — to provide more information to the database.
Biden did not say exactly what executive action Obama has in mind.
Capitol Hill Democrats also are scrambling to pass new gun laws, including restoring an assault-weapon ban, prohibiting high-capacity ammunition clips and expanding background checks for gun buyers.
After meeting with Biden at the White House, Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called the exchange “very productive and actually inspiring.”
He pushed back against claims by firearms advocates that Obama was embarking on a gun grab, saying it was not a “debate around the Second Amendment.”
“There is a powerful consensus building in this country, which is reflected in the meetings of this task force,” Gross said.
Biden today meets with representatives from the National Rifle Association and Walmart, the top firearms retailer in the country.
At first, Walmart declined the White House invitation but then decided to send an executive to the meeting.
“We are sending an appropriate representative to participate,” Walmart spokesman David Tovar told The Associated Press.