Rep. Steve Stockman threatens impeachment over Obama gun control efforts

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, second from right, participates in a mock swearing-in ceremony with Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, for the 113th Congress on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Just over a week on the job, freshman Texas Rep. Steve Stockman has threatened to push impeachment of President Barack Obama over potential gun control efforts.

Stockman, R-Friendswood, asserted that Obama’s plans to use executive orders “to infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms is an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic.”

Obama is reviewing recommendations from a task force led by Vice President Joe Biden in response to the massacre of 20 students and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., a month ago. The White House is expected to release details this week and likely will push for a congressionally-enacted ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, conceding that the president doesn’t have authority to impose such a ban without Congress.

Still, Stockman is proposing tough pushback.

“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment,” he said in statement issued Monday that continues:

“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.

Under no circumstances whatsoever may the government take any action that disarms any peaceable person – much less without due process through an executive declaration without a vote of Congress or a ruling of a court.

The President’s actions are not just an attack on the Constitution and a violation of his sworn oath of office – they are a direct attack on Americans that place all of us in danger. If the President is allowed to suspend constitutional rights on his own personal whims, our free republic has effectively ceased to exist.”