President Barack Obama will hold a town hall meeting Thursday to discuss gun issues in the U.S. and what his plans are for a final year push to implement a series of executive actions to curb what he calls "our epidemic of gun violence." Obama will talk with an audience at George Mason University at 8 p.m. for an hour, according to CNN, which will televise the event.
The conversation, titled "Guns in America," will come just days after Obama will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss his final plans for the set of executive actions he can take against gun violence, NBC News reported. The executive orders are expected in the first half of January, but it is not clear whether they will be timed with the town hall or, perhaps, the State of the Union address on Jan. 12.
Obama blasted Congress in his weekly radio address for their lack of action on gun control, citing the influence of the gun lobby in the face of popular public support.
"Three years ago, a bipartisan, commonsense bill would have required background checks for virtually everyone who buys a gun," he said, according to RealClear Politics. "Keep in mind, this policy was supported by some 90% of the American people. It was supported by a majority of NRA households. But the gun lobby mobilized against it. And the Senate blocked it."
The result is that, "tens of thousands of our fellow Americans have been mowed down by gun violence. Tens of thousands. Each time, we’re told that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, so we shouldn’t do anything," Obama said, according to the text of the address.
"We know that we can’t stop every act of violence," he said, according to ABC News. "But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something – anything – to protect our kids from gun violence?
Obama added: "I get letters from responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time these tragedies happen; who share my belief that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms; and who share my belief we can protect that right while keeping an irresponsible, dangerous few from inflicting harm on a massive scale."
