Gun Violence: 100,000 People Killed in the U.S.

Over the past decade in America, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence—and millions more have been the victim of assaults, robberies, and other crimes involving a gun, according to a White House Statement released Tuesday.

Many of these crimes were committed by people who never should have been able to purchase a gun in the first place. Over the same period, hundreds of thousands of other people in our communities committed suicide with a gun and nearly half a million people suffered other gun injuries, the statement adds.

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Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been shot to death protecting their communities. And too many children are killed or injured by firearms every year, often by accident. The vast majority of Americans—including the vast majority of gun owners—believe we must take sensible steps to address these horrible tragedies, the statement said.

“Some of the gaps in our country’s gun laws can only be fixed through legislation, which is why the President continues to call on Congress to pass the kind of commonsense gun safety reforms supported by a majority of the American people,” according to the statement.

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And while Congress has repeatedly failed to take action and pass laws that would expand background checks and reduce gun violence, today, building on the significant steps that have already been taken over the past several years, the Administration is announcing a series of commonsense executive actions designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands through background checks.

On the other side, the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus has termed President Obama’s action as his executive overreach on guns.

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“Ever since the American people voted to place a check on President Obama’s agenda, he has routinely overstepped his constitutional authority to force his policies on the American people and this gun control push is no different,” Priebus stated today.

“The Supreme Court reaffirmed gun ownership is a constitutionally protected right, but that clearly hasn’t stopped President Obama and the Democrats’ obsession with restricting the Second Amendment.”

RNC further says that the recent tragedies that have gripped the country are heartbreaking, but none of the unilateral restrictions President Obama is proposing would have prevented them, making his proposal all the more insulting and political.

“The truth is, this executive overreach is all about burnishing the president’s legacy and boosting Democrat enthusiasm in a presidential election year. But that’s no excuse for subverting the will of the people’s representatives in Congress, and the American people won’t tolerate President Obama’s dangerous power grab,” according to the RNC statement.

Photo courtesy: White House