engaged in the business. so those people who sell guns at gun shows may now become engaged in the business and have to have a license. and by being required to have a license, then they have to do background checks. so it s kind of going around through the back-door to close the loophole. it doesn t officially do it, but it will certainly restrict the number that are sold without background checks. it s amazing. this is going to be a defining moment of the president s term in office. this scene today. and it was a big moment. but what he he actually did was pretty small because that s all he can do. if you want to change gun control in the united states, congress has to do it, not the president. so i was just struck by the con strast between this really bureaucratic step in the direction of closing the gun show loophole and this incredible emotion that we see. so given precisely that point
reaction. i think it s also a part of i think he feels like he s had a successful presidency. health care, this iran deal, ended the war in iraq. he has not done what he wanted on guns. i think the frustration of that really came through today. mike, to you, on just the specifics now as we talk about the gun show loopholes or r if you re trying to buy guns online. i have talked to a lot of people who say this is executive action, but it s really not a whole lot. how do you interpret this and how will this be enforce d by atf? it s a start. it s unfortunate we couldn t have done this through congress, but the president decided time is up, it s time to do something about it. it doesn t close the gun show loophole. only congress can require background checks on every buyer. but it will define who is
trail. that s right because it s part of the politics of the day. there s nothing wrong with that. but it s not something that is going to wind up in the courts any time soon. . it s interesting. mike also with atf, what they are adding some agents o to enforce this. is that even enough? in my opinion, no. but congress is going to have to approve the funding for that. it s going to be interesting to see where the efforts in this country go. are people going to spend all their efforts trying to defeat this or say why it s wrong and make sure it doesn t succeed or are they going to put all their efforts into helping develop solutions. this is a first step. criminals are stul going to get guns no matter what you do, but it s a first step in lumting access to guns. so if congress funds it, that s going to be a accept in the right direction to give new resources they need to enforce this. atf has been a target of republicans in the house and
right now. that s what they re focused on. and they don t want this to get in the way of that. so they really can t confront the iranians. we ve seen a string of incidents. the administration was about to sanction iran and pulled out at the last minute. congress passed a bill to increase waiver restrictions on iran and john kerry promised he would waive those restrictions. so the saudis look at that and say that s not good for us so we re going to go our own way. when the saudis decide to do something like anger iran by kifg a shia cleric, they re just not listening to us because they believe that our priorities keeping this iran nuclear intact and that comes at a cost to them and that s coloring this whole crisis. josh rogin, thank you so much. any time. and before i let all of you go, just a reminder, please, most definitely tune into cnn thursday night. president obama will be joining anderson cooper for an exclusive one-hour live town hall to discuss gun violence in america.
that s the thing. that s the tricky thing, right, kelly? right. for him to extend background checks, is he saying all private sales have to do background checks. if he is, how is he going to know who is selling guns? a man behind the camera, he can sell a gun to one of his friends and nobody would know that happened. what i m wondering is if he s going to go into gun registration next because he s not going to be able to that would be the only way to enforce that. let me end with you all asking this because you re so in the weeds on this and know how this works and know how to do all this lawfully. if you could help i don t mean to say bang congress over the head, but if you could have one law enforced or go through congress that everyone could agree on that would make sense tr your perspective with regard to keeping people safe and