Advisers to President Barack Obama reportedly are finalizing a proposal to expand background checks on would-be gun buyers without congressional approval.
The Associated Press reported that White House adviser Valerie Jarrett told a Wednesday night vigil for victims of the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. that Obama had asked his team to complete a proposal and submit it for his review "in short order."
After October's mass shooting in Roseburg, Ore., Obama said his team was looking for ways to tighten gun laws without a vote in Congress. White House officials have said they're exploring closing the so-called "gun show loophole" that allows people to buy weapons at gun shows and online without a background check.
Obama has repeatedly called for tighter gun control measures in the wake of mass shooting during his administration. In the wake of last week's terror attack that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. Obama called on Congress to approve legislation to keep people on the no-fly list from buying guns. Gun rights advocates oppose the proposal because they say it violates the rights of people who have not been convicted of a crime.
On Thursday, the House rejected an attempt by Democrats to force a vote on the issue. A Senate version of legislation preventing suspected terrorists from being allowed to buy firearms from licensed gun dealers was voted down last week.
Also Thursday, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed Thursday to use an executive order to ban gun sales to those on federal no-fly watch lists.
However, despite repeatedly calls for gun control by Democrats at the state and federal level, gun sales have repeatedly spiked after mass shooting incidents.
The FBI said last week that it processed a record number of firearms background checks on Black Friday, the busy shopping time the day after Thanksgiving. The agency processed 185,345 background checks. roughly two per second.
The previous record for the most background checks in a single day was Dec. 21, 2012, about a week after the Newtown shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were shot to death. The week following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary saw the processing of 953,613 gun background checks.
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