Obama To Announce Proposals To Curb Gun Violence
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - President Obama is scheduled to announce his proposals for curbing gun violence just before noon today. The package is expected to include legislation and executive action.
Congressman Chaka Fattah was among those who met with Vice President Joe Biden just before Biden sent his recommendations to the president. Fattah says legislative proposals will include a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips but he thinks the president won't wait for congress to act on other issues.
"Where the president already has authority, he's going to order federal departments to do more."
Fattah suggests they'll be ordered to share mental health records. The president could also lift a ban on gun violence research.
"The public is going to see a full court press-- reasonable gun safety laws and actions by the federal government, pushes for state and local governments to do more."
Some of the surprising facts that became known through the Biden commission is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has not had a director in nearly 7 years, as congress has blocked every nominee and that federal funding for gun violence research has been banned since 1996.
Professor Richard Berk is among 24 Penn researchers to sign onto a letter from leading scientists asking for access to funding and data.
"It's an epidemiological problem, it's a public health problem. And a lot of the important issues they'd like to address they can't."
