The Obama Presidency and Gun Policy

In many ways, the Obama presidency’s handling of gun policy is emblematic of its larger approach to public policy: that is, gun safety proponents and progressives were disappointed when President Obama neglected gun policy during his first term, and then were disappointed when his embrace of that policy in his second term failed to produce policy results.<br> <br>This paper examines the arc of gun policy during the Obama presidency and its policy environment as a policy exemplar of his presidency, which was punctuated and shaped by factors that include: the Supreme Court’s reinvention of gun rights under the Second Amendment in 2008 (coming in the midst of the presidential campaign), the loosening of state gun laws, congressional action and inaction, the rise of mass shootings, and the emergence of a new generation of gun safety organizations.<br><br>Supporters of stronger gun measures were heartened by Obama’s election to the presidency, as he had long supported stronger gun laws. Yet he mostly avoided the issue in the campaign. During his first term, he proposed no new gun legislation to Congress, and even signed into law two minor provisions that loosened gun laws. In fact, the Brady Campaign, a pro-gun safety organization, gave him a failing grade on the issue after his first year in office.<br><br>That all changed in December 2012, when a deranged man shot up the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing twenty children and six staff people. The sheer horror of the event shocked the nation in a way not seen in over a decade.<br><br>Fresh off his 2012 re-election victory, and appalled by the shooting, Obama embraced a broad gun safety agenda through several measures sent to Congress in early 2013, including establishment of universal background checks for all gun purchases and re-imposition of the assault weapons ban. All were defeated in the U.S. Senate. Congress’s refusal to act put an end to any further legislative efforts, but Obama did not let the issue go. Rather, he used the presidential “bully pulpit” for the rest of his term to continue to decry gun violence and urge national action, which heartened and helped rally gun law supporters. The Sandy Hook shooting had another consequence: it spurred the creation of new gun safety organizations that brought new focus, energy, and resources to bear in many states and at the national level.