Ryan: Obama’s executive action another attempt to divide, ‘distract from his failed policies’

By CNS News | January 6, 2016, 6:51 EST

Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis. arrives for a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday that President Barack Obama’s decision to use his executive authority to enact more gun control laws is “another attempt to divide and distract from his failed policies.”

“We should also better enforce the laws we have on the books now to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Instead, the president is again targeting law-abiding citizens, intruding further into innocent Americans’ lives. At a time when the country wants the president to lead the fight against radical Islamic terror, this is yet another attempt to divide and distract from his failed policies,” Ryan said in a statement.

As CNSNews.com previously reported, Obama announced last week in his first weekly address of 2016 that he will be acting unilaterally on gun control legislation, because Congress has not yet acted on it.

“Ever since he was a candidate, President Obama’s dismissiveness toward Americans who value the Second Amendment has been well-documented,” said Ryan. “He acts as if the right to bear arms is something to be tolerated, when in truth – as the Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2008 – it is fundamental. The same goes for the Constitution and its limits on executive power.

“We all are pained by the recent atrocities in our country, but no change the president is reportedly considering would have prevented them. We have seen consistently that an underlying cause of these attacks has been mental illness, and we should look at ways to address this problem,” Ryan said.

“While we don’t yet know the details of the plan, the president is at minimum subverting the legislative branch, and potentially overturning its will. His proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected,” he said.

“No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally. The American people deserve a president who will respect their constitutional rights – all of them. This is a dangerous level of executive overreach, and the country will not stand for it,” Ryan added.

— Written by Melanie Hunter