Just 33 days after a school massacre in Newtown, Conn., claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators, President Barack Obama presented a comprehensive proposal Wednesday aiming to reduce gun violence in a country that has had far too many mass killings.
Accompanied by four children who had written to him on the issue, and with family members of some of the Newtown victims in the audience, the president outlined 23 executive actions -- mostly aimed at training, awareness, research and interagency cooperation -- and several legislative proposals he said Congress must enact to combat what he called an epidemic of gun violence.Insisting that the nation "can't put this off any longer," Obama called for "common-sense" measures that include: universal background checks for anyone trying to buy a gun (40 percent of current sales don't have background checks); reinstating and strengthening the ban on military-style assault weapons; and restoring a 10-round limit for ammunition magazines."Weapons designed for the theater of war have no place in a movie theater," the president said, referring to a mass shooting in July in an Aurora, Colo., theater that left 12 dead and 58 wounded.The killing of children in Newtown has forced a national debate. It was appropriate that Obama appoint a task force, headed by Vice President Joe Biden, to work quickly toward concrete recommendations for effective change.The debate must now move to the halls of Congress, where many are poised to oppose any changes in current gun laws.As the president warned, there will be many who will view his proposals as a "tyrannical, all-out assault on liberty," but the American people must not allow the discussion this time to be hijacked by special-interest groups that will use fear of infringing on the Second Amendment against anything other than completely unfettered gun ownership.Obama is right that this should not be about election-focused lawmakers coveting an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association or any other gun lobby, but about a serious search for ways to reduce violence and loss of innocent life.The nation must go as far as we can to keep weapons of mass killing out of the wrong hands.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
