A month after his inauguration, Donald Trump has already begun taking steps to undo a sweeping law that President Barack Obama signed that put a moratorium on gun purchases for several years.
Here’s what you need to know about the executive order and its potential impact.
— From left, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Attorney Generals Joe Biden, Mary Landrieu, and Joe Biden Jr. attend the swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13, 2021.
— “President Donald Trump is poised to sign a sweeping executive order this week that will effectively end the gun ban he enacted last year,” the New York Times reported.
The measure, which will likely take effect within days, will also eliminate restrictions on ammunition sales and require universal background checks for gun purchases.
The White House says the order will also expand background checks to online purchases, though critics say the proposal would leave millions of gun owners unable to obtain guns legally.
— In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike are pushing for new gun control legislation, arguing that it will save lives.
The National Rifle Association says a new bill introduced by Sens.
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Richard Blumenthal, D, Ds., would take the form of a national registry.
The bill would require gun owners to register their firearms with the FBI, require the creation of a registry of all private citizens and ban the possession of assault weapons.
Other Democrats have joined the push, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D.-Hawaii.
— The NRA has said it will continue its lobbying efforts for the measure, but it’s unlikely the measure will be signed into law.
“The NRA will continue to press for legislation that protects our Second Amendment rights, and will continue pushing for sensible gun safety measures that will not take away our Second Ammendment rights,” the NRA said in a statement.
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he would introduce a measure that would bar the sale of assault rifles to civilians.
The senator from Vermont said he will seek a ban on assault weapons that is comparable to the law in place in New York and Connecticut.
“I think we should ban assault weapons,” Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And we should have background checks, and we should be able to buy them and have them shipped to our homes.
And I think that’s something we should do.”
