National Rifle Association: Congress

Congress Dept: The president s sweeping $500-million plan, coming one month after the school massacre in Connecticut, marks the most comprehensive effort to tighten gun laws in nearly two decades. But his proposals, most of which are opposed by the powerful National Rifle Association and its allies in Washington, face a doubtful future in a divided Congress where Republicans control the House of Representatives, according to Vancouver Sun. The president s orders and any stricter controls on high-powered guns that might stem from them won t necessarily have a positive effect on violent British Columbian crime like the four fatal shootings in Surrey this week according to law enforcement and criminologists and wASHINGTON American President Barack Obama urged a reluctant Congress on Wednesday to require background checks for all gun sales and ban both military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines in an emotion-laden plea to curb gun violence in America though he acknowledged he s in for an uphill battle. Seeking to circumvent at least some opposition, Obama signed 23 executive actions on Wednesday, including orders to make more federal data available for background checks and end a freeze on government research on gun violence. But he acknowledged that the steps he took on his own would have less impact than the broad measures requiring approval from Congress. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.