Jan 05 2016

Graham Expresses Concerns About Obama's Executive Actions on Gun Control

Contact: Kevin Bishop (864) 250-1417 or Clint Riddle (202) 224-5972

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today expressed concerns about President Obama’s executive actions on gun control.

“Every American should be concerned about the executive actions announced by President Obama,” said Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I fear it may prove to be yet another executive overreach and affront to our constitutional system of checks and balances.”

Graham again called on President Obama and Democrats in Congress to support bipartisan legislation he has introduced which would deny guns to individuals who have a history of severe mental illness.

Graham noted the case of South Carolina resident Alice Boland, a mentally disturbed individual who once pled ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ in federal court for threatening to kill the President of the United States.

In 2013, Boland passed a background check and was able to legally purchase a firearm. She then went to Ashley Hall, a school in Charleston, where she tried to shoot several school officials.

“An individual who pleads ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ should not be able to pass a federal background check and legally purchase a gun,” said Graham. “If President Obama wants to sign bipartisan legislation to expand background checks and keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them, he should support my legislation. With President Obama’s backing, we could pass it in no time.”

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