Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday offered his support for President Obama's plan to enact stricter gun control laws via executive action, while Republican candidates threatened to roll it back if elected.
"I would prefer that we could have bipartisan support, but the truth is Republicans are not interested in doing anything about gun safety," the Vermont independent senator said on CNN's "State of the Union," according to The Washington Times. "I think the vast majority of the American people are horrified by the mass shootings that we have seen, they want action."
After Congress failed to tighten gun laws in the wake of several mass shootings, Obama announced on Friday that he will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss options for unilaterally expanding instant background checks on gun sales.
Sanders represents a pro-Second Amendment state and usually takes a middle-ground position on gun control, but he said Sunday that he believes Obama is carrying out the will of the people.
"What the president is trying to do now is to expand the instant background check by closing the gun show loophole. I think he's doing what the American people would like him to do," Sanders said.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates quickly slammed Obama over his impending executive action and promised to overturn it if elected.
"There's an assault on the Second Amendment. You know Obama's going to do an executive order and really knock the hell out of it," front-runner Donald Trump told a crowd in Biloxi, Mississippi on Saturday, reports CNN. "You know, the system's supposed to be you get the Democrats, you get the Republicans, and you make deals. He can't do that. He can't do that. So he's going to sign another executive order having to do with the Second Amendment, having to do with guns. I will veto. I will unsign that so fast."
Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation" earlier in the day, Trump said the country has "a tremendous mental health problem" but "all they want to do is blame guns. And it is not the gun that pulls the trigger."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday called the president a "petulant child" and also said he would undo the gun control measures. "This president wants to act as if he's a king, as if he's a dictator," Christie told "Fox News Sunday," according to The Hill.
"The fact is, if he wants to make changes to these laws, go to Congress and convince them that they're necessary," he continued. "But this is going to be another illegal executive action, which I'm sure will be rejected by the courts, and when I become president will be stricken from executive action."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called the planned executive order "completely inappropriate."
"His first impulse always is to take rights away from law-abiding citizens," Bush told Fox. "And it's wrong. And to use executive powers he doesn't have is a pattern that is quite dangerous. The so-called gun show loophole doesn't exist. People who want to occasionally sell guns ought to have the right to do so without being impaired by the federal government."
