In the run-up to his official announcement later today, Republican politicians have been hammering the president for taking executive action on gun control, with Chris Christie saying he’s acting like “a king” and “a dictator,” and Donald Trump warning that “pretty soon, you won’t be able to get guns.”
But the nation’s largest gun lobbying firm seems pretty nonchalant about what we know so far, at least according to a spokesman quoted in The New York Times:
“This is it, really?” asked Jennifer Baker, an official with the N.R.A.’s Washington lobbying arm. “This is what they’ve been hyping for how long now? This is the proposal they’ve spent seven years putting together? They’re not really doing anything.”
The changes do seem modest. According to the Times, they involve requiring more gun dealers to conduct background checks and beefing up federal enforcement of existing gun laws.