Guinta: President's Gun Plan a 'Distraction from Security Failures'

U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-NH, responding to news that the president will issue executive gun control orders as early as this week, stated that “President Obama, facing his final year in office, has decided to completely disregard Congress to target Americans’ cherished Second Amendment rights.”

Manchester’s former mayor added that the President’s orders are “a cynical political ploy to distract from his failure to protect the country or work with Congress on better solutions. Granite Staters will not support these actions, while crime and terrorism are on the rise. We have a right to self-defense, whether the President likes it or not.”

Guinta pointed to bills that passed the House of Representatives late last year, including several to increase screening of Syrian refugees, strengthen border controls and develop a strategy to combat Islamic terror online. He indicated support for increased federal funding to mental health programs.

“The fact is, nothing the President is proposing would have stopped attacks in San Bernardino or elsewhere,” he said. “There are laws on the books that could help, if the Administration bothered to enforce them.”

Guinta is working on legislation that would require only a simple Congressional majority to override executive gun control orders. The bill would effectively block any order infringing on the Second Amendment.

“The President’s attempts to avoid Congress signal he’s out of ideas, as he makes his way out of office,” the Congressman said. “Apparently, he feels no obligation to consult Granite Staters, who time and again have refused him power to remake federal gun law.”