VIDEO: Obama Announces Executive Action Plan for Gun Control

President Obama is well aware that he faces one of the biggest battles of his White House tenure in taking up the gun control issue, but on Tuesday, he exercised his executive authority and moved to restrict sales of certain kinds of firearms.

We already know what his opponents are saying: Second Amendment encroachment, overreach of executive powers and so forth. The Washington Post provided details of Obama’s plan shortly after his announcement:

In a speech that veered from weepy to outraged and even comic, the president said his decision to exercise his executive authority — a move that has infuriated many Republicans — was an effort to prevent further violence and bring the country together on a divisive issue.

“I’m not on the ballot again; I’m not looking to score some points,” he said, adding later that it was possible to reconcile the Constitution with additional restrictions on firearms. “We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people.”

The package includes 10 provisions, White House officials said. One key provision would require more gun sellers — especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows — to be licensed and would force them to conduct background checks on potential buyers. Obama would devote $500 million more in federal funding to treating mental illness — a move that could need congressional approval — and require that firearms lost in transit between a manufacturer and a seller be reported to federal authorities.

On Monday evening, the president previewed his announcement with a flurry of tweets, one of which declared: “What’s often ignored in this debate is that a majority of gun owners agree with commonsense steps to save lives.”

Here’s his last post in that series:

The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage, but they can’t hold America hostage. We can’t accept this carnage in our communities.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 4, 2016

Watch Obama deliver part of his speech at the White House (via NBC News):

–Posted by Kasia Anderson