President Barack Obama claims his recent executive action will expand mandatory background checks to online sales, gun shows and flea markets (where the laws are, ironically, the same as they are everywhere else). He even plans to add an additional 230 background check processing examiners and ask states to submit updated and accurate criminal history data. Yet according to a fact-checking piece by the Associated Press, the gun-control measures presented Tuesday would not have prevented the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary or San Bernardino, Calif.
In fact, when it comes to mass shootings, the new policies would not have kept the suspects in several of the deadliest recent incidents from obtaining weapons. The killers either legally purchased their guns or bypassed background checks altogether by using firearms bought by others.
