Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he supports more thorough
background checks and a standard on federal gun prosecution Tuesday night
during a South Side panel discussion with policymakers and scholars
about the politics of guns in America.
The public meeting was on the eve of President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden’s announcement of a comprehensive gun control package,
that calls on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban and law requiring background checks on all gun buyers. The sweeping gun control plan also included 23 executive orders that call for, among other things, additional provisions on background check for gun purchasers, improved access to mental health care, and an end to the ban on federal research on gun violence.
The
package comes on the heels of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school
shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, which Obama has said was the worst day of presidency, among other recent
mass killings with guns.
“My
view is whatever you can do by executive order take care of it,”
Emanuel said to veteran journalist Tom Brokaw, who moderated the
University of Chicago Institute of Politics’ event.
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Upon returning home last year from serving two years in the U.S.
Army, Asma Njesada said her greatest challenge was finding a job.
A winter season that has thus far been defined by a record number of
snowless days and unseasonably warm temperatures has experts, advocates
and some of Illinois’ newly-elected congressional lawmakers raising
concerns over the kind of impact such conditions will ultimately have on
the environment.
