Obama Uses Newtown School Shooting to Push Gun Control
December 14, 2013
Reuters - President Barack Obama marked the anniversary of the Newtown
school shootings on Saturday by calling for tighter gun control and
expanded mental healthcare, and by lighting 26 candles to commemorate
the victims.
"We haven't yet
done enough to make our communities and our country safer," the
president said in his weekly address. "We have to do more to keep
dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to
do more to heal troubled minds."
Obama
did not mention the shooting at a Colorado high school on Friday where a
student armed with a shotgun wounded at least two classmates before
apparently taking his own life. The president's weekly remarks are
recorded in advance.
At the
White House, the president and Michelle Obama lit one candle for each of
the 20 children and six school workers who died at a Connecticut
elementary school a year ago, then stood and faced the candles with
hands clasped in front of them. The ceremony unfolded in silence.
Despite
a concerted push by the president and Vice President Joe Biden to
tighten gun laws, legislation that would have stiffened background
checks for gun sales and banned rapid-firing "assault" weapons died in
Congress in the face of the powerful gun lobby.
Polls
showed that more than 80 percent of Americans supported expanded
background checks, but opponents of the legislation argued it is
essential to hold the line on protecting Americans' right to keep and
bear arms guaranteed under the Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
Frustrated on
the legislative front, the administration began taking executive actions
aimed at preventing gun violence. Steps have included making it easier
for federal agencies to share information about people with a history of
mental illness who should be prevented from buying a gun.
State
legislatures have been more aggressive in enacting gun control
legislation, but some of those measures have faced a backlash. Colorado
passed gun control measures, then gun rights activists used recall
elections to oust two state senators who backed them.
The
White House on Tuesday proposed spending $130 million to help teachers
and other people who work with youth recognize the signs of mental
illness and help people get treatment, but Congress has not yet
allocated those funds.
So the
administration will spend $50 million from its Health and Human Services
budget to help community health centers hire more mental health
professionals and provide more services and another $50 million from the
Agriculture Department budget to improve mental health facilities in
rural areas, the White House said.
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