Obama Gives Executive Order on Gun Control, Residents React

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President Obama delivered an executive order concerning gun laws Tuesday. The order explains that gun sellers — both online and in person– must have a license to sell firearms, and are required to run background checks on all customers. The President also set aside $500 million dollars to give better access to mental health screenings. The order will employ new agents to perform the background checks 24/7.

In Montgomery, buying a gun can sometimes be as simple as opening the classified pages in the local paper.

“If you pick up a local newspaper today,  you will see ten individuals trying to sell a gun,” says Frank Manuel, owner of Montgomery Indoor Shooting Complex. “These are unlicensed individuals and they will sell a gun to anyone that has the cash. It doesn’t matter if you’re a terrorist, if you’re mentally deranged, it doesn’t matter or  criminal, they will sell a gun to you without a background check.”

Manuel says the executive order will not change his business at all. As a licensed owner, he’s been doing the checks and following the rules for years.

“You’re required to fill out a form, I call the information on that form into the FBI, the FBI runs a background check,” he says. He adds that the simple process takes around five to ten minutes if the applicant has nothing alarming in their background check.

Individuals with mental health issues or red flags will not be allowed to purchase a firearm, which is something Montgomery resident Cheryl Peale is happy about. Peale is the founder of Homicide Watch Montgomery, a Facebook page that details homicides in the city.

“Although the number has dropped somewhat,” she says, “we still want to make sure that everyone understands one life lost is too many.”

Peale lost her cousin to a gun crime at a young age. She is hoping the executive order will help lessen the number of gun crimes in the city.

“​I’m very glad he’s addressing this ​during his last term,” she adds. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t embrace it and find a way to make it work. Because we’ve lost too many of our family members, our relatives, our neighbors. And enough is enough.”

Despite the number of private sellers who may not be following all of the rules, FBI statistics show Alabama set a record for gun sale related background checks in December. The new record sets at 47,605 checks, which beat out the previous record set in December 2012 at 30,600 checks.