President Barack Obama inferred, during a press conference this afternoon, that gun control must be different "this time." He made the same tired arguments about the decades-old debate that has heated up recently in the aftermath of attacks by people armed with "assault weapons."
The president acknowledged that, "no set of laws will eliminate the threat entirely," but vowed to do "whatever we can" with or without Congress. The president also called upon Congress to propose and pass new legislation to attempt to reduce "gun violence" by limiting the options legal buyers have when choosing to purchase a new firearm.
One of the more provocative proposals the president offered is that of the background checks on all buyers, including by private sellers of firearms. So, what does that mean? A private seller is any person who owns a firearm and decides to sell it to another individual. Until today, this right has never been challenged in so blatant a way.
The more disturbing implication, however, is that in order to have any chance of enforcing this kind of action, there must be a record of who owns what firearm. That means a mandatory registration of citizens who own firearms with the federal government, so that firearm possession and ownership can be tracked.
One thing is certain, this time will be different.
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