Sentencing "highlights" in President Obama's new gun control push

Thanks to this helpful piece from the New York Times, which is headlined "What’s in Obama’s Gun Control Proposal," I see that at least a few of the latest idea on gun control coming from the White House involve sentencing matters.  Via the list provided by the Times, here is a partial account of the provisions likely to be of greatest interest to sentencing fans:

Proposed Congressional Actions

• Requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, including those by private sellers that currently are exempt.

• Reinstating and strengthening the ban on assault weapons that was in place from 1994 to 2004....

• Increasing criminal penalties for "straw purchasers," people who pass the required background check to buy a gun on behalf of someone else.

• Acting on a $4 billion administration proposal to help keep 15,000 police officers on the street....

Executive actions...

• Directing the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks....

• Issuing a presidential memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

• Releasing a report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and making it widely available to law enforcement authorities.

• Maximizing enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

• Issuing a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence.

• Directing the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenging the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

As regular readers know, the last listed item here is of particular interest to me because I continue to want to believe that smart gun technologies may be a much more effective and efficient means to reduce gun violence than lots of new prohibitions or increased sentences and other costly criminal justice investments.

Prior related posts following Newton masacre:

• Could latest tragic mass shooting prompt renewed consideration of "smart gun" technologies?
• "Smart Gun Technology Could Have Blocked Adam Lanza"
• "Empirical evidence suggests a sure fire way to dramatically lower gun homicides: repeal drug laws"