"But in the meantime, we are doing everything in our power without them — including strengthening the existing background check system".
We're going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system.
"If you go to Great Britain, for example, and tell them the Queen is bad, nothing will happen, there will be no revolution, because the necessary conditions are absent there is no existing background for this operation".
In 1999, after the Columbine High School shootings, the Senate voted to expand federal background checks to purchases at gun shows, only to see a bipartisan coalition in the House vote to loosen existing background check rules.
John Feinblatt, a senior adviser to Mr. Bloomberg on guns, compared the existing background check system to an airport with two lines for screening passengers — one line with security and one where people "just waltz through" without being checked.
Officials hope that clarifying the so-called "engaged in the business" language in existing background check legislation will go a long way to prevent criminals and mentally ill people from buying guns through sellers who exploit a current loophole designed only for hobbyists and personal sales.
"Renault F1 and its parent company have given serious consideration as to whether it should remain in the sport following the prejudice caused to its corporate image by the conspiracy, in addition to the existing background of financial pressures that have caused car manufacturers to withdraw," the team said.
The list of partially or fully completed executive orders include improvements in federal record keeping over existing background checks, extra training and resources for law enforcers, new guidelines published this week on gun safety in schools, and an end to the prohibition on federal research into gun-related homicides and suicides.
Since the existing background-check system began, in 1994, officials have screened more than 108 million people before they could buy a gun, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the federal government has blocked 1.9 million attempted purchases because of felony convictions or other problems with the would-be buyers' background.
Seen in this light, the best idea in the president's proposals is probably his call to beef up the existing background check requirement so that it covers private sales as well as licensed dealers — a proposal that some of the smartest conservative writers on guns have cautiously endorsed as well.
