With the presidential term ending for Obama and a new election coming up with some rather interesting characters, we are faced with issues such as taxes, the middle class, and, of course, guns.

The gun debate is an ongoing debate which has lasted many years because of the discontinuities of opinion on gun control in the American population. It is based on the matter of whether gun control should be put into action to protect American citizens, or whether gun control would infringe on second amendment rights.

Recently the San Bernardino shooting brought the discussion on guns back after a couple killed fourteen people and injured twenty-two in an attack on a holiday party.

On January fifth, Obama proposed a new gun measure that demanded better background checks carried out by the ATF (or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). The White House also wants to make sure that the ATF requires all gun dealers to have the proper licenses to sell dangerous firearms. This rule is enforced so that small gun dealers at gun shows would have to keep records of the guns that they sell and who they sell them to.

During this meeting, Obama hammered Congressional Republicans. He said that he understood the second amendment, and what it meant for Americans. He promised that he would not try to take away legal gun owner’s arms, but only wanted to make society safer by making it harder for people who sell guns to sell them illegally. He also said we needed to impose rules legislatively for anything to happen.

Many people who are against gun control have criticized Obama openly. They stated that he has been focusing on gun control to target law abiding gun owners, instead of putting his sights on criminals and terrorists. They also say that no matter what claims Obama makes, he will never respect a citizen’s the ownership of arms, as he didn’t from day one in 2008.

The introduction of Obama’s new strategy to introduce gun control also attracted criticism. Many people say that further background checks and more communications about criminal records would not have stopped the last gun massacre, or the one before that, because the people who initiated the massacres were also law abiding citizens.

Obama says he refuses to think in this way, and that the first steps must be made to stop gun violence. He says he cannot do this alone.

This is just one meeting. The gun debate in total is not just this, but actually many meetings stringed together, starting with a conflict in 1994, where there was a ten year ban on assault rifles. This ban has expired, and there have been many attempts to bring the ban back, but they all failed. This includes the ban Obama attempted to start in 2013 after the Sandy Hook massacre.

This is the problem with many gun control laws that have been attempted to be passed. Obama may call for more gun control measures, but he is turned down by congress and the gun lobby.

The gun lobby is the group who keeps Obama’s gun control in check with pro-gun groups like the NRA. The NRA provides educational tutorials on gun safety and how to react in emergency situations, they support the common citizen’s right to own legal guns. They accept donations from normal Americans who are afraid of losing their guns to Obama. They also accept donations from large corporations.

In 2013, they earned $350 million from donations, with an entire $83 million coming from the common America. Earnings soared after the Sandy Hook massacre, as Americans were afraid of losing their guns. The NRA uses this money to fund elections for pro-gun candidates and also send out election fliers, pro-gun fliers and other things like this. They use this political power to help resist unfair gun control inflicted upon the population by the government.

They constantly stop Obama in fear of gun control and their right for guns, but even they know that the background checks in Obama’s new gun control plan won’t necessarily take away their guns.

One step can lead to another and future actions may make it easier for politicians take another step in making the gun control law more severe. The gun debate is a game of tug of war right now, between the White House and the gun lobby. But with the new election soon arriving, who knows what will happen.