The New York Times reports here on some of the executive actions President Obama could take — more research on guns and health by the CDC, for example — as a response to national concern about gun violence following the Connecticut school slaughter.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is right, seems to me, in saying the president shouldn’t let side issues detract from some winnable core issues.

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For example, assault weapon ban probably isn’t going to pass. And the reality is that the gun nuts and manufacturers illustrated in a previous weapon ban that it’s probably futile.

But is there really any rational argument against universal background checks? The time is now.

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“The assault-weapons ban is a low priority relative to the other measures the Biden task force is considering,” Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Third Way, a left-leaning research group, said after hearing from Mr. Biden last week. “Political capital in the gun debate only goes so far. We think it should be spent on things that would have the greatest impact on gun violence, like universal background checks and cracking down on gun trafficking.”

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