(Reuters) – Unburdened by re-election worries and empowered by law to act without Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama could will take action to “improve” background checks on gun buyers, ban certain gun imports and bolster oversight of dealers.

gun controlProspects for gun control legislation intensified in the wake of the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, as more pro-gun rights lawmakers said on Monday they were open to the possibility while Obama and three cabinet members met at the White House to discuss the subject.

Having just won a second four-year term, Obama does not need to fear alienating voters who favor gun rights and he could press ahead without lawmakers on fronts where federal law enables executive action.

Speaking in Newtown, where a gunman on Friday killed 20 children and six adults in an elementary school, Obama vowed late on Sunday to “use whatever power this office holds” to try to prevent such massacres.  “Because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine,” Obama said at Newtown High School.

His administration has the power to issue executive orders or new rules, options that Obama is likely to consider in combination with possible new laws. […]

Many of the ideas have to do with the background checks that licensed gun dealers run on potential buyers. […]

The administration also has leeway to act in how it defines certain categories of people prohibited from buying a gun.

(snip) this is where you need to remember the labels “extremists”, “bitter-clingers”, “right-wing nuts”, “fanatics” et al.   Used to label people who the administration opposes.  So if they can put you in a database as an “extremist”, or “person of concern”, the NO-GUN List becomes just like the NO-FLY List.     Who controls the definitions? ….. /SD

Federal law bars anyone “who has been adjudicated as a mental defective,” but it does not specify whether that means only a court can disqualify someone, said Michael Volkov, a former Republican Justice Department official now at the law firm LeClairRyan.  (more)

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