Ex-NRA President: More Background Checks Would Not Have Stopped Shootings
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- David Keene, who served as President of the NRA from 2011 to 2013, reacted with skepticism to President Obama's announcement that he is taking executive action to expand background checks on gun purchasers.
Keene, speaking with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said we still do not have enough information on what the President is proposing to draw a complete conclusion.
"We don't know, exactly, what the President has in mind here. Also, we don't know how far he can go. A lot of this is going to meet resistance on Capitol Hill and a lot of it is going to end up in the courts. We really don't know. On that one, I'm, sort of, holding my fire, other than raising the possibility of how dangerous it could be."
However, he did insist that more background checks won't stop gun violence by themselves.
"Looking at this, you ask, is this going to prevent at terrorist act? Is this going to prevent a criminal from procuring a firearm and using it to commit a crime? Is this going to prevent somebody who is adjudicated to be mentally ill, who could be dangerous, not somebody that's just upset that a neighbor reports to the FBI, but somebody who is actually dangerous from getting a gun? The answer, overall, is no."
Keene would like to see Washington focus on dealing with the mental health problems that have led to many mass shootings.
"Most mentally ill people are not a threat to anybody, including themselves. But there is a small group that are. What we're interested in is policies that identify those people, on the one hand, without stigmatizing everyone who's had a bad day on the other...This could be a good step or an incredibly dangerous step because one of the things that I fear, and if you look at these proposals, is just to find more and more groups that you deny firearms ownership to."