While sweeping gun laws are required to improve America's issue of gun violence, evidence from Obama's attempts suggest that only gradual and small degrees of regulatory change will be capable of passing through a divided legislative branch.
This literature demonstrates that even a public administrative force such as the executive branch must face power limitations. The very premise of the United States government is that the three branches work in coordination with one another to ensure to no singular ideological vision comes to dominate a nation founded on plurality. Accordingly, the text by Denhardt & Grubbs indicates that public administration must demonstrate the capacity for compromise, for accommodation and for recognition of a wide cross-section of interests (Denhardt & Grubbs, 422)
Moreover, this cross-section is always shifting, changing and demanding engagement by its leadership. Accordingly, in many locales, rising populations in immigrant communities, various shifts in settling patterns related to socio-economic demographics and a whole host of population make-up characteristics require a public administrator to remain in intimate awareness of the census trends. (Denhardt & Grubbs, 432) on matters such as gun control, these patterns shape both the nature of the problem and the shared public opinion on how best to contend with said problem.
To this point, Denhardt & Grubbs argue, leadership in public administration is an orientation in need of constant revision and refinement. Indeed, the demands placed upon public service at the federal, state and local levels will vary significantly based on the duration of an economic phase, the occurrence of some major civic event or the incursion of a dynamic period of crisis. The issue of gun legislation is especially demonstrative of this, with incidences of great public visibility and visceral emotional...
For the relative decline in gun violence across the last several decades, those incidences which have drawn the public's attention have been particularly grotesque and disturbing. With incidences such as the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the massacre in an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre and the assassination attempt of Congresswoman Giffords, the matter of gun control has become especially salient even if such events don't necessarily comport with a statistical trend. With this increasing visibility has emerged both a more vocally stated desire for gun control by the public and a more defensive and hostile stance by those in support of 2nd Amendment Freedoms.
Recommendations:
Sadly, the only real way to bring about change in this area is through the gradual introduction of compromised but effective regulatory advances. Though the President was unable to see his progressive legislation rushed through Congress, it is perhaps more appropriate to address background checks and other aspects of rational reform in small and manageable phases.
There is little question that the pursuit of heightened gun control is a valuable and necessary goal. It would be a great tragedy with the potential for deadly outcomes for the Obama Administration to draw back entirely from its efforts in this area. Instead, the Administration must find ways to achieve compromise, with or without the cooperation of the gun lobby.
Works Cited:
Barrett, T. & Cohen, T. (2013). Senate Rejects Expanded Gun Background Checks. CNN.com.
Denhardt, R.B. & Grubbs, J.W. (2002). Public Administration: An Action Orientation. Wadsworth Publishing.
Rainey, H.G. (2009). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations (4rd ED). Wiley Publishing.
