78 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY gun violence. and keep our children safe.”28 However, major changes depend on Congressional action. To avoid having his administration being accused of overreaching executive authority or creating a constitutional crisis,29 President Obama displayed moral leadership by calling on Congress to pass “commonsense gun control” laws. First, he called on Congress to pass a law that required all gun sellers to conduct a universal background check. President Obama stated that the law should be consistent whether the person is buying from a private seller or a licensed dealer, making it harder for felons or others legally prohibited from buying a gun to purchase one. Second, he called on Congress to ban militarystyle assault clips and limit clip size to ten rounds. While pointing to the shooting at the Aurora movie theater, President Obama stated that these types of clips were the reason that the shooter was able to shoot 70 and kill 12 in just a few minutes. Finally, he called on Congress to confirm his pick for Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. President Obama said, “Congress needs to help, rather than hinder, law enforcement as it does its job.”30 Each of these laws would make it harder for people to get weapons to harm children and relieve children of their fear. Even though President Obama pushed this issue through his words, deeds, and actions, he was not able to make the final step of last legislative change without the help of Congress. Although President Obama consistently pushed for gun violence reforms to protect the children in America in each of his presidential State of the Union addresses in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, except 2015,31 at the end of his presidency, President Obama stated that he was “distressed” and that not passing “common sense gun safety laws” was one of the biggest frustrations of his presidency.32 If anything, President Obama’s administration saw its highest level of gun sales in December 2012, the month of the Sandy Hook shooting.33 One of the main reasons for the Obama Administration’s lack of success in passing any major gun violence legislation after the Sandy Hook Shooting was timing. The massacre happened one month after the 2012 Presidential Election, and during that campaign and for most of his first term President Obama stayed quiet on the gun control debate.34
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