Individual Senators' Votes on Universal Background Checks

The Senate defeated the attempt to expand background checks for gun purchases on April 17, 2013.  Here is the tally:
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 113^th Congress - 1^st Session

as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

Vote Summary

Question: On the Amendment (Manchin Amdt. No. 715 )
Vote Number:	97	Vote Date:	April 17, 2013, 04:04 PM
Required For Majority:	3/5	Vote Result:	Amendment Rejected
Amendment Number:	S.Amdt. 715 to S. 649 (Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of2013)
Statement of Purpose:	To protect Second Amendment rights, ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and provide a responsible and consistent background check process.

Vote Counts:	YEAs	54
	NAYs	46

Alphabetical by Senator Name

Alexander (R-TN), Nay Ayotte (R-NH), Nay Baldwin (D-WI), Yea Barrasso (R-WY), Nay Baucus (D-MT), Nay Begich (D-AK), Nay Bennet (D-CO), Yea Blumenthal (D-CT), Yea Blunt (R-MO), Nay Boozman (R-AR), Nay Boxer (D-CA), Yea Brown (D-OH), Yea Burr (R-NC), Nay Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Cardin (D-MD), Yea Carper (D-DE), Yea Casey (D-PA), Yea Chambliss (R-GA), Nay Coats (R-IN), Nay Coburn (R-OK), Nay Cochran (R-MS), Nay Collins (R-ME), Yea Coons (D-DE), Yea Corker (R-TN), Nay Cornyn (R-TX), Nay Cowan (D-MA), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Nay Cruz (R-TX), Nay Donnelly (D-IN), Yea Durbin (D-IL), Yea Enzi (R-WY), Nay Feinstein (D-CA), Yea Fischer (R-NE), Nay Flake (R-AZ), Nay

Franken (D-MN), Yea Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea Graham (R-SC), Nay Grassley (R-IA), Nay Hagan (D-NC), Yea Harkin (D-IA), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Nay Heinrich (D-NM), Yea Heitkamp (D-ND), Nay Heller (R-NV), Nay Hirono (D-HI), Yea Hoeven (R-ND), Nay Inhofe (R-OK), Nay Isakson (R-GA), Nay Johanns (R-NE), Nay Johnson (D-SD), Yea Johnson (R-WI), Nay Kaine (D-VA), Yea King (I-ME), Yea Kirk (R-IL), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Leahy (D-VT), Yea Lee (R-UT), Nay Levin (D-MI), Yea Manchin (D-WV), Yea McCain (R-AZ), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Yea McConnell (R-KY), Nay Menendez (D-NJ), Yea Merkley (D-OR), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea Moran (R-KS), Nay

Murkowski (R-AK), Nay Murphy (D-CT), Yea Murray (D-WA), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea Paul (R-KY), Nay Portman (R-OH), Nay Pryor (D-AR), Nay Reed (D-RI), Yea Reid (D-NV), Nay Risch (R-ID), Nay Roberts (R-KS), Nay Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea Rubio (R-FL), Nay Sanders (I-VT), Yea Schatz (D-HI), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea Scott (R-SC), Nay Sessions (R-AL), Nay Shaheen (D-NH), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Nay Stabenow (D-MI), Yea Tester (D-MT), Yea Thune (R-SD), Nay Toomey (R-PA), Yea Udall (D-CO), Yea Udall (D-NM), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Nay Warner (D-VA), Yea Warren (D-MA), Yea Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea Wicker (R-MS), Nay Wyden (D-OR), Yea

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---54
Baldwin (D-WI) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE) Cowan (D-MA) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Hagan (D-NC)	Harkin (D-IA) Heinrich (D-NM) Hirono (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaine (D-VA) King (I-ME) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Manchin (D-WV) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD)	Murphy (D-CT) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Reed (D-RI) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Toomey (R-PA) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---46
Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX)	Enzi (R-WY) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Lee (R-UT) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)	Murkowski (R-AK) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Pryor (D-AR) Reid (D-NV) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Grouped by Home State

Alabama:	Sessions (R-AL), Nay	Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Alaska:	Begich (D-AK), Nay	Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Arizona:	Flake (R-AZ), Nay	McCain (R-AZ), Yea
Arkansas:	Boozman (R-AR), Nay	Pryor (D-AR), Nay
California:	Boxer (D-CA), Yea	Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Colorado:	Bennet (D-CO), Yea	Udall (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut:	Blumenthal (D-CT), Yea	Murphy (D-CT), Yea
Delaware:	Carper (D-DE), Yea	Coons (D-DE), Yea
Florida:	Nelson (D-FL), Yea	Rubio (R-FL), Nay
Georgia:	Chambliss (R-GA), Nay	Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Hawaii:	Hirono (D-HI), Yea	Schatz (D-HI), Yea
Idaho:	Crapo (R-ID), Nay	Risch (R-ID), Nay
Illinois:	Durbin (D-IL), Yea	Kirk (R-IL), Yea
Indiana:	Coats (R-IN), Nay	Donnelly (D-IN), Yea
Iowa:	Grassley (R-IA), Nay	Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Kansas:	Moran (R-KS), Nay	Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Kentucky:	McConnell (R-KY), Nay	Paul (R-KY), Nay
Louisiana:	Landrieu (D-LA), Yea	Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine:	Collins (R-ME), Yea	King (I-ME), Yea
Maryland:	Cardin (D-MD), Yea	Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts:	Cowan (D-MA), Yea	Warren (D-MA), Yea
Michigan:	Levin (D-MI), Yea	Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Minnesota:	Franken (D-MN), Yea	Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Mississippi:	Cochran (R-MS), Nay	Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Missouri:	Blunt (R-MO), Nay	McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Montana:	Baucus (D-MT), Nay	Tester (D-MT), Yea
Nebraska:	Fischer (R-NE), Nay	Johanns (R-NE), Nay
Nevada:	Heller (R-NV), Nay	Reid (D-NV), Nay
New Hampshire:	Ayotte (R-NH), Nay	Shaheen (D-NH), Yea
New Jersey:	Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea	Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico:	Heinrich (D-NM), Yea	Udall (D-NM), Yea
New York:	Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea	Schumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina:	Burr (R-NC), Nay	Hagan (D-NC), Yea
North Dakota:	Heitkamp (D-ND), Nay	Hoeven (R-ND), Nay
Ohio:	Brown (D-OH), Yea	Portman (R-OH), Nay
Oklahoma:	Coburn (R-OK), Nay	Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Oregon:	Merkley (D-OR), Yea	Wyden (D-OR), Yea
Pennsylvania:	Casey (D-PA), Yea	Toomey (R-PA), Yea
Rhode Island:	Reed (D-RI), Yea	Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
South Carolina:	Graham (R-SC), Nay	Scott (R-SC), Nay
South Dakota:	Johnson (D-SD), Yea	Thune (R-SD), Nay
Tennessee:	Alexander (R-TN), Nay	Corker (R-TN), Nay
Texas:	Cornyn (R-TX), Nay	Cruz (R-TX), Nay
Utah:	Hatch (R-UT), Nay	Lee (R-UT), Nay
Vermont:	Leahy (D-VT), Yea	Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Virginia:	Kaine (D-VA), Yea	Warner (D-VA), Yea
Washington:	Cantwell (D-WA), Yea	Murray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia:	Manchin (D-WV), Yea	Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin:	Baldwin (D-WI), Yea	Johnson (R-WI), Nay
Wyoming:	Barrasso (R-WY), Nay	Enzi (R-WY), Nay

The Decline in Church Attendance - A Benefit

There continues to be articles that either lament the decreased attendance in mainline churches in the United States or rejoice in the decline of the institutionalized church.  Both see as an increased absence of religion in younger Americans.  One side recoils in horror for souls they assume are lost forever while others cheer the downfall of established churches assuming that their own movements can profit from mainline Protestant decline.  I believe that the smaller numbers in attendance do not reflect a change in faith but instead a change in American mores.  Ultimately, mainline churches will benefit from congregations of the committed.

When I was a kid in the fifties, church attendance was mandatory in order to function in society.  People who did not attend some religious institution were seen as outside the bounds of society.  Their businesses were to be shunned and their children proselytized. I lived in a city that was predominately Southern Baptist, so the majority of church goers were Baptist even if they were only "Sunday Baptists" engaging in less than Christian practices during the week.

By the sixties, community standards were beginning to relax,  As a teenager, I could stop attending church with only mild approbrium from family and friends. (The church my mother and I attended did not approve of members asking questions.  I was told my questions were a sign of unbelief.)  Adults still faced social stigma for not attending church at least once a month.

By the time I received my doctorate in chemistry in the early seventies, I caught only minor flack for being a confirmed deist and never attending church.   God was not present in my life.  I never attended church and neither did most of my friends. My supervising professor did.  He was a committed member of his Presbyterian church and had tried to persuade me ever so gently not to work in the lab on Sundays.  He never succeeded.

When the eighties rolled around, all that remained of obligatory church attendance for younger Americans had devolved into attendance on two occasions: Christmas Eve and Easter.  Still, older Americans were entrenched in the weekly ritual of morning worship and indoctrinated in its social benefits.  But, there was another form of worship on the rise - the megachurch.  Many of these churches had existed since the fifties, but their growth took off in the eighties. These churches vacuumed up members as people fled the cities for the suburbs.

I had a front row seat on the growth of one megachurch.  In 1979, I helped start a church in Austin, Texas. (In 1975 I became a Christian and joined a liberal Baptist church)  Very few of the sixteen that originally saw the need for a new church thought about becoming a megachurch although it was our pastor's dream from the beginning.  We started with 60 in attendance on the first Sunday and grew to over 6000 attendees spread over three services every Sunday morning.

By the nineties, mainline churches had started to see a precipitous drop in attendance.  I think two things happened.  First, the megachurch provided religious entertainment with few strings attached.  One hour Sunday morning was all that was demanded.  Second, people who had grown up in the days of mandatory church attendance and for whom it still was a way of life began to die off. Together, these factors caused the decline in mainline Protestant churches.

 Who remains in the mainline churches?  Some survivors of the days of mandatory attendance have proved to be long lived and continue to occupy the pews.  Most of the remaining congregants are believers and true converts. The rest are the flotsam and jetsam of modern society, people who feel lost in a megachurch or  are somehow outside societal norms.  In the mainline Protestant church they find a welcome if for no other reason than they fill the pews.  Perhaps that is too cynical.  In the small church I now belong to, such people are loved, accepted and nurtured.  I hope that is true in most churches.

So, the megachurch has siphoned off those that want church as entertainment, a way to compartmentalize religion by reserving it to their occasional Sunday attendance, or a way to meet people in a supposedly safe environment.   Megachurches do have their committed, but they are few.  The mainline church has shrunk but still cares for the least including, but not limited to, the damaged humans that find their way through their doors.  The decline is an illusion of numbers only.  The relative number of true followers of Christ remains unchanged.  Those that came because society demanded it are gone as well as those that found their answer in the megachurch. Today membership in the mainline church is a matter of belief first, attendance second. I think that is the way it should be.

 

How Texas Senators and Representatives Voted on Violence Against Women Act

Votes on the Violence Against Women Act Passed 2013

Texas Delegation

Those that voted for VAWA are printed in blue.
Those that voted against VAWA printed in red.
Those not voting in green.

Texas Senators: 
   Senator John Cornyn [R] 
   Senator Ted Cruz [R]
 Texas Representatives by district number:
1  Rep. Louie Gohmert Jr.[R]
2  Rep. Ted Poe [R]
3  Rep. Sam Johnson [R]
4  Rep. Ralph Hall [R]
5  Rep. Jeb Hensarling [R]
6  Rep. Joe Barton [R]
7  Rep. John Culberson [R]
8  Rep. Kevin Brady [R]
9 Rep. Al Green [D]
10 ]Rep. Michael McCaul [R]
11 Rep. Michael Conaway [R]
12 Rep. Kay Granger [R]
13 Rep. Mac Thornberry [R]
14 Rep. Randy Weber [R]
15 Rep. Rubén Hinojosa [D]
16 Rep. Beto O'Rourke [D]
17 Rep. Bill Flores [R]
18 Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee [D]
19 Rep. Randy Neugebauer [R]
20 Rep. Joaquin Castro [D]
21 Rep. Lamar Smith [R]
22 Rep. Pete Olson [R]
23 Rep. Pete Gallego [D] 
24 Rep. Kenny Marchant [R]
25 Rep. Roger Williams [R]
26 Rep. Michael Burgess [R]
27  Rep. Blake Farenthold [R]
28 Rep. Henry Cuellar [D]
29 Rep. Gene Green [D]
30 Rep. Eddie Johnson [D]
31 Rep. John Carter [R]
32 Rep. Pete Sessions [R]
33 Rep. Marc Veasey [D]
33 Rep. Filemon Vela [D]
35 Rep. Lloyd Doggett [D]
36 Rep. Steve Stockman [R]

The President's Inaugural Address January 21, 2013

As 
Prepared for Delivery –
Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution.  We affirm the promise of our democracy.  We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names.  What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.  For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.  The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.  They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.
For more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.  We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone.  Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.  For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.  No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.  Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.  A decade of war is now ending.  An economic recovery has begun.  America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.   My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.  We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.  We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.  We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time.  We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher.  But while the means will change, our purpose endures:  a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American.  That is what this moment requires.  That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.  We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.  But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.  For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn.  We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.  We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us.  They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.  We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.  Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.  The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.  We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise.  That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks.  That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.  That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.  Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage.  Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty.  The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm.  But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law.  We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.  America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.  We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.  And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes:  tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.  For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.  Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.  Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.  Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.
That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – real for every American.  Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness.  Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.
For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay.  We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.  We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service.  But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream.  My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.
They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope. You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright.  With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.

Presidential Memoranda Signed January 16, 2013

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

 Much has been made of the President signing twenty-three Executive Orders on gun control.  In reality, he directed twenty-three executive actions be undertaken which including signing three executive memoranda. Here is a list of the twenty-three actions and below them links to the actual memoranda signed by the President.  None of these actions take guns away from sane gun owners.

Executive actions

• Issuing a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
• Addressing unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
• Improving incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
• Directing the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
• Proposing a rule making to give law enforcement authorities the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
• Publishing a letter from the A.T.F. to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
• Starting a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
• Reviewing safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
• Issuing a presidential memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
• Releasing a report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and making it widely available to law enforcement authorities.
• Nominating an A.T.F. director.
• Providing law enforcement authorities, first responders and school officials with proper training for armed attacks situations.
• Maximizing enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
• Issuing a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence.
• Directing the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenging the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
• Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
• Releasing a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
• Providing incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
• Developing model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
• Releasing a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
• Finalizing regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within insurance exchanges.
• Committing to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
• Starting a national dialogue on mental health led by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education. 

Presidential Memorandum -- Tracing of Firearms in Connection with Criminal Investigations | The White House

Presidential Memorandum -- Improving Availability of Relevant Executive Branch Records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System | The White House

Presidential Memorandum -- Engaging in Public Health Research on the Causes and Prevention of Gun Violence | The White House