President Barack Obama is expected to soon use executive action to expand background checks on guns, according to people familiar with White House proposals and planning.
One of the proposed changes would require more small-scale gun sellers to get their Federal Firearms License (FFL) and therefore conduct background checks on every gun sold.
Under current law, those who sell guns with the "principal objective of livelihood and profit" are required to have an FFL and conduct background checks, while those who sell as a hobby or occasionally from a private collection are not. Obama plans to change the definition of what it means to be "engaged in the business" of gun sales to include those who sell as a hobby, according to Politico.
Obama is also expected to impose additional measures that tighten rules for reporting guns that are lost or stolen on their way to a buyer.
The president has repeatedly asked Congress to enact gun control measures, with his pleas growing louder after the October shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College, as well as the shootings in Colorado Springs, Colo., and San Bernardino, Calif.
However, Congress has been unable to take legislative action, prompting Obama to say he will do "whatever power this office holds" to put in place gun control measures through executive action.
"The president has made clear he's not satisfied with where we are" and has "asked his team to scrub existing legal authorities to see if there's any additional action we can take administratively," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, according to Reuters.
Gun control advocates said that they expect the new executive actions to be unveiled next week, before Obama's annual State of the Union address on Jan. 12. However, unforeseen circumstances could delay an announcement, CNN reported.
Neither of the executive actions would have stopped any of the high profile shootings in the last decade, according to Breitbart.
