Highlights of Obama's Executive Actions on Gun Violence

The Obama administration is announcing a series of executive steps aimed at curbing gun violence, including broader background checks and the hiring of additional specialists to process those checks.

Here are some of the highlights:

EXPANDED BACKGROUND CHECKS

Under the president's directive, anyone who's in the business of selling guns must obtain a license, regardless of whether they sell firearms online or at gun shows, and must conduct background checks on their customers. Currently, only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on buyers.

The White House says there's no threshold number of sales that will trigger the licensure requirement, and that even a few transactions may be enough to determine that a person is engaged in the business of selling guns.

Background checks will also be required on those who try to buy sawed-off shotguns, machine guns and similar weapons through a trust, corporation or other legal entity.

MORE FBI EXAMINERS

The FBI will hire more than an additional 230 examiners and other staff to help process background checks. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System in 2015 received more than 22.2 million background check requests, or an average of more than 63,000 per day.

The FBI is also working to modernize NICS, which dates to the 1990s, and to improve the response time for alerting local law enforcement authorities that someone who is disqualified from buying a gun attempted to do so.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has written to states emphasizing the need to submit complete criminal history records so the background check system has as much information at its disposal as possible.

LOST AND STOLEN WEAPONS

A rule issued by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will clarify that a dealer shipping a gun is responsible for notifying law enforcement after determining it was lost or stolen in transit. The rule is aimed at clarifying regulations on lost or stolen weapons that the White House says are ambiguous about who precisely bears that responsibility.

SMART GUN TECHNOLOGY

A presidential memorandum to the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice directs the agencies to conduct or sponsor research into smart gun technology. That technology is aimed at reducing the risk of accidental gun discharges and improving the tracing of lost or stolen firearms.

The memorandum also instructs the agencies to regularly review the availability of smart gun technology and to promote its use.

MENTAL HEALTH

The White House is proposing a $500 million investment to improve mental health care.