Coming Out Firing

President Obama today unveiled his plan to address gun violence in front of an audience that included the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, and a survivor of the Virginia Tech rampage.

The HuffPo summarizes the key measures, which include 23 executive actions that will be taken without Congressional approval:

The proposal, which comes at the end of a month-long review process spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, is broken down into four key subsections: law enforcement, the availability of dangerous firearms and ammunition, school safety and mental health. In an effort to touch on all four of those elements, the president recommended requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales; reinstating the assault weapons ban; restoring a 10-round limit on ammunition magazines; eliminating armor-piercing bullets; providing mental health services in schools; allocating funds to hire more police officers; and instituting a federal gun trafficking statute, among other policies.

Clearly, the President, as promised, put everything on the table, including funding for more police officers to provide school security, something that the National Rampage Association claims to be for. The heavy lifting will be the President and Vice President campaigning over the next weeks and months across the country, calling on community leaders, police, ministers, and others to add their voices to the growing gun control movement. The focus of the effort will be to put pressure on a corrupt Rethug House (and, frankly, some red state Dems) to enact as many of the proposals as possible, knowing that the NRA funds many of their campaigns and threatens them with challengers if they don't tow the NRA line.

(photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP-Getty Images)