President Barack Obama may use an executive order to force background checks for those who are purchasing firearms, according to The Washington Post.
The executive order would close a loophole that allows private gun dealers to sell a large number of guns each year without performing background checks, the New York Daily News reported.
Current laws state that anyone who is "engaged in the business" of firearms sales must be licensed and therefore perform background checks on the persons they are selling their guns to. A person "who makes occasional sales, exchanges or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms," however, is not required to do this.
The executive action would force these private sellers to perform background checks if they sell a certain number of guns per year. It is currently not clear where that threshold may be.
Gun control is becoming a prominent national talking point again in the wake of the mass shooting at Oregon on Oct. 1, in which nine victims and the shooter lost their lives, according to NBC News. This same order was considered in 2013 following the Sandy Hook shooting, but it was not signed into law at that time.
