WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama called on Congress Tuesday to tighten gun laws after the latest in a “ritual” of shooting massacres, but lawmakers admitted there is insufficient support for new legislation.
A day after a gunman shot dead 12 people at a US Navy facility a few miles from the White House, Obama said the “overwhelming majority” of Americans agreed with him on the need for common sense firearms reform.
“I do get concerned that this becomes a ritual that we go through every three, four months, where we have these horrific mass shootings,” Obama said in an interview with the Telemundo Spanish-language television network.
“Everybody expresses understandable horror. We all embrace the families... and yet we’re not willing to take some basic actions.”
Obama introduced a sheaf of measures including a plan for enhanced background checks on gun buyers and a ban on assault-style rifles as America reeled after 20 children and six adults were killed in a school rampage in Newtown, Connecticut last December.
Yet the package foundered in Congress, partly due to a fierce lobbying campaign by pro-gun groups and opposition from some of his fellow Democrats from conservative states, leaving Obama to introduce a smaller set of measures using his executive powers.
“Ultimately, this is something that Congress is going to have to act on,” he said in the interview. “I’ve taken steps that are within my control. The next phase now is for Congress to go ahead and move.”
Monday’s killings were greeted with a chorus of revulsion across the political spectrum, but as the previous gun-reform fight showed, it will take more than White House appeals for action to sway lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted to revive the debate soon.
“But we’ve got to have the votes first. We don’t have the votes,” Reid said after meeting with fellow Democrats.
“I hope we get them but we don’t have them now.”
The blunt assessment by the man who schedules Senate floor debate speaks volumes about the uphill battle facing gun control advocates.
Several Democrats, including Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, said they hoped to reintroduce legislation on background checks and ensuring that the mentally ill would not have access to firearms.
“I think there is a potential opening for a new consensus and new momentum and impetus for gun violence prevention,” Blumenthal said, but he acknowledged it would be a hard sell to Republicans, most of whom voted against expanding background checks in April.
That bill failed by five votes in the 100-seat Senate (Reid changed his vote to “no” so he could bring up the legislation again), and it would have been an even tougher political lift in the Republican-controlled House.
But Senator Chris Murphy said Americans won’t let lawmakers “ignore this continuing slaughter,” noting that more than 8,000 people have died in US gun violence in the nine months since Newtown.”
“People are just not going to accept that Congress continues to sit on its hands while these mass shootings happen,” he said. AFP
