As you probably know by now, President Obama is issuing some executive orders to curb the gun violence in this country. The most important of these would redefine what constitutes a "gun dealer". This would force many of those who sell guns online or through gun shows to perform a background check before selling a firearm to anyone. This wouldn't close all of the loopholes in the background check law, but it would close many of them -- and it would make it harder for criminals, terrorists, and the dangerously mental ill to legally buy a gun.
As expected, the NRA and their Republican sycophants are loudly whining over the president's actions. They are dragging out all of their old arguments -- that this is a violation of the Second Amendment and will result in the confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. Those are ridiculous lies.
The real question is what does the American public think. Poll after poll has shown that about 90% of Americans want the holes plugged in the background check law (including significant majorities of Republicans, NRA members, and gun owners). But will they support this being done through a presidential executive order?
The answer is likely to be YES. The only poll on this issue I have found so far is the Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner Research Poll taken between November 16th and 19th (when the idea of an executive order on the issue was first being discussed). They questioned a random national sample of 850 likely 2016 voters, and the margin of error was 3.4 points.
That survey showed 73% (about 3 out of every 4 Americans) would support an executive order to close background check holes, and a majority of 53% would strongly support that. Only 25% would oppose an executive order, and only 19% would strongly oppose it.
It looks like the Republican officials speaking against the executive order could well be hurting themselves with the American public. Americans are tired of criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous people being able to easily and legally buy a gun (including assault weapons) -- and they want it stopped.
