Lynch Defends Legality of Plans to Tighten Gun Buyer Checks
- Attorney general says action needed to curb firearms violence
- Republican lawmakers questioning legality of Obama moves
Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney general, speaks during an interview at the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec. 7, 2015.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch defended the Obama administration’s plans to expand background checks on firearms purchases as lawful and “common sense” executive actions to address what she called an epidemic of gun violence.
“These actions will help to make our people safer, our communities more secure and our law enforcement more effective,” Lynch said in testimony Wednesday before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. They “are all well-reasoned measures, well within existing legal authorities, built on work that’s already under way.”