President addressed the White House in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, urging lawmakers that the national debate over gun-control has '"re-emerged." President Obama announced that he supports a ban on assault weapons, as well as military style rifles and large ammunition magazines. In the breifing, he said that he wanted legislative recommendations no later than January, which is merely weeks away, stressing the importance of acting without any delay.
"This is not some Washington commission, this is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside. This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms, right now," as reported by Voice of America.
In a speech in Newton on Sunday President Obama offered words of comforts to victims' families and friends, where he also mentioned that, "no single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this," as reported by CNN News.
According to reports, the President has trusted the Vice President, Joe Biden, to spearhead the agenda on federal gun control legislation, given Joe Biden's track-record in such matters.
However, it should be expected that if anyone will spearhead the debate of federal gun-control legislation in congress, it will be Vice President Biden, particularly because of his track-record on the subject during his reign as senator.
In 1988, Biden introduced a Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which took nearly six year to pass through congress, which it did in 1994. In 2007, Biden looked to pass the Crime Control and Prevention Act. Both of these legislations deal with federal gun-control and also seek to strengthen background checks on purchases of weapons as well as stricter mental health assessment of those who purchase weapons.
Senator Diane Feinstein, judiciary committee chair, also announced that she will work to create a legislation that would ban assault weapons.
According to the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, the president will support Feinstein's efforts. According to Wall Street Journal, Carney also said, "the president would consider limits on high-capacity magazines and would back efforts to prevent people from buying guns through unlicensed dealers without a background check."
The National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that it would support "meaningful contribution" to prevent further mass shootings such as the one that took place in elementary school in Connecticut on Friday. The NRA plans to hold a conference on the issue of such legislation.
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