President Obama announces Executive Action on Gun Control

President Obama held a press conference on January 5, 2016 where he announced that he will take Executive Action to extend and enforce gun control laws in an effort to curb gun violence. Whatever one thinks of the measure, the fact that the President is engaging in such action brings up interesting issues of the extent of presidential power and the state of governmental action or inaction. Here are 17 words from the president's speech.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. unalienable
    incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another
    Our unalienable right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -– those rights were stripped from college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first-graders in Newtown.
  2. inherently
    in an essential manner
    We are not inherently more prone to violence.
  3. urgency
    an earnest and insistent necessity
    But we do have to feel a sense of urgency about it.
  4. resilience
    ability of a material to return to its original shape
    There’s a lot of resilience, there’s a lot of strength, but there’s also a lot of pain.
  5. impugn
    attack as false or wrong
    I think we can disagree without impugning other people’s motives or without being disagreeable.
  6. proponent
    a person who argues for a cause or puts forward an idea
    ...a background check, purchase his weapon safely and responsibly. This is not seen as an infringement on the Second Amendment. Contrary to the claims of what some gun rights proponents have suggested, this hasn’t been the first step in some slippery slope to mass confiscation. Contrary to claims of some presidential candidates, apparently, before this meeting, this is not...
  7. mandatory
    required by rule
    As Ronald Reagan once said, if mandatory background checks could save more lives, “it would be well worth making it the law of the land.”
  8. bipartisan
    supported by both sides
    Senator John McCain introduced a bipartisan measure to address the gun show loophole, saying, “We need this amendment because criminals and terrorists have exploited and are exploiting this very obvious loophole in our gun safety laws.”
  9. rehabilitation
    use of therapies to restore or improve physical function
    But I know the pain that she and her family have endured these past five years, and the rehabilitation and the work and the effort to recover from shattering injuries.
  10. exploited
    developed or used to greatest advantage
    Senator John McCain introduced a bipartisan measure to address the gun show loophole, saying, “We need this amendment because criminals and terrorists have exploited and are exploiting this very obvious loophole in our gun safety laws.”
  11. infringement
    an act that disregards an agreement or a right
    ...teach his daughter how to hunt, he can walk into a gun store, get a background check, purchase his weapon safely and responsibly. This is not seen as an infringement on the Second Amendment. Contrary to the claims of what some gun rights proponents have suggested, this hasn’t been the first step in some slippery slope to mass confiscation....
  12. lobby
    the people who support some common cause or business
    So the gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage.
  13. carnage
    the savage and excessive killing of many people
    We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom.
  14. comprehensive
    including all or everything
    How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?
  15. constraint
    the state of being physically limited
    We all believe in the First Amendment, the guarantee of free speech, but we accept that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater. We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people. We cherish our right to privacy, but we accept that you have to go through metal detectors before being allowed...
  16. consensus
    agreement in the judgment reached by a group as a whole
    And instead of thinking about how to solve the problem, this has become one of our most polarized, partisan debates — despite the fact that there’s a general consensus in America about what needs to be done.
  17. polarize
    cause to divide into conflicting positions
    And instead of thinking about how to solve the problem, this has become one of our most polarized, partisan debates — despite the fact that there’s a general consensus in America about what needs to be done.
Created on Tue Jan 05 14:17:23 EST 2016 (updated Tue Jan 05 15:17:24 EST 2016)

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