President Obama signs 23 Executive Orders on gun control

President Obama signed 23 executive orders on gun control, sending directives to many Federal agencies on Wednesday.

Surrounded by several children “affected by the tragedies, the President discussed his nearly two dozen edicts on gun ownership and then closed with: “Let’s do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing for them and for this country that we love so much.”

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The announcement at the White House comes after Biden led a task force to make gun-control proposals, partly in response to a December 14 shooting that killed 20 children and six women at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

“The world has changed and it is demanding action, it is in this context that the president” asked me to come up gun-control recommendations, Biden said.

“While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil,” Obama said at a mid-day announcement at the White House, “if there’s even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try it.”

Acknowledging the difficulty of the Congressional fight ahead, Obama appealed for public support, slamming – as he did in a press conference earlier this week – conservative commentators and the most vocal pro-gun activists for “ginning up” opposition to gun reforms for political reasons. 

“I will put everything I’ve got into this and so will Joe [Biden], but I tell you, the only way we can change is if the American people demand it,” he said. 

President Barack Obama signs letters written by Hinna Zeejah, Grant Fritz, Julia Stokes, and Teja Goode backstage in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium after unveiling new gun control proposals as part of the Administration’s response to the Newtown, Conn., shootings, and other tragedies, Jan. 16, 2013. The children wrote to President Obama in the wake of the Newtown tragedy expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)