In the aftermath of shooting rampage that killed 20 innocent children in an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut. President Obama unveiled the gun control legislation plan in this January. He also signed 23 the executive orders that do not need approval from the government. These are described as the most sweeping proposals in 20 years.

He will push the congress to ban the military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, expand background checks, and toughen gun-trafficking laws. Recognizing that the legislative fight could be long and difficult, the president also took immediate steps by issuing 23 executive actions which bolster enforcement of existing laws, improve the nation’s data base used for background checks etc.

Republican opposed to the plan saying that the ban on assault weapons or high capacity magazines violate the Second Amendment that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. NRA, which has aggressively campaigned against the Obama’s measure, insisted that deployment of armed security guards or police in every American school will prevent the happening of massacres.

It will be extremely difficult for the Obama administration to win over the Republicans since there so many who supported by the NRA, but also by the Democrats who support gun rights. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, is known to be a strong ally of the gun lobby.

Tom Scocca writes at Newsweek in his column “When Gun Nuts Write Gun Laws, Nuts Have Guns” strongly stated that the liberty which was insisted by NRA, which is a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, is “the liberty to kill”.

On the 16th President Obama also announced the fact that about 900 people have been killed in 33 days after Sandy Hook elementary school massacre. “In the past 40 years about 1m Americans have been killed in gun violence – more than the combined US deaths from every war it has fought since 1917,” the Financial Times reported in its editorial on the 17th of January.

Curbing gun through legislation is the solution. In Australia, after a 1996 ban on all automatic and semiautomatic weapons, gun homicides dropped 59 percent in the next decade. In Britain Gun homicide rate is one-fourth, Germany is one-Sixth, compared to that of the U.S. And Japan’s homicide rate is almost near zero. All three have tougher gun laws than the U.S.

If assault weapons are not available for the ordinary citizens, the chances of using them would come close to near zero. It is important to face this fact squarely and what Republican and Democrats need is courage.

Making changes in the interpretation of the Second Amendment will require the changes of the meaning of rights in the name of “liberty” which has been created and secured by Caucasians since the foundation of the country. With this sense, President Obama will be put in a difficult position. In order to prevent this tragic event from happening again, president Obama should be able to leave historic legacy in this field as well.