President Obama said Monday that he is "confident" that new gun control measures he will roll out this week through executive order will not violate the Second Amendment.
Obama, speaking to the press before meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, added that he had "good news": the recommendations from his administration on how to enact new gun control measures would be within his legal authority.
"The good news is that these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority, and the executive branch, but they're also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support and believe in," Obama said. "So over the next several days we'll be rolling out these initiatives. We'll be making sure that people have a very clear understanding of what can make a difference and what we can do, although we have to be very clear that this is not going to solve every violent crime in this country.
"It's not going to prevent every mass shooting. It's not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal. It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and the extraordinary loss that they've suffered as a consequence of a firearm being in the hands of the wrong people. I'm also confident that the recommendations that are being made by my team here are ones that are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment and people's lawful right to bear arms, and we have been very careful recognizing that, although we have a strong tradition of gun ownership in this country, that even those who possess firearms for hunting, for self-protection and for other legitimate reasons want to make sure that the wrong people don't have them for the wrong reasons."