Speaking at the White House, President Obama urged a national “soul searching” on gun control. He also called congressional inaction a source of “shame.”
President Obama: “It’s not the only country that has psychosis, and yet we kill each other in these—in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else. … The country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm, and we take it for granted, in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me. And I am prepared to work with anybody, including responsible sportsmen and gun owners, to craft some solutions. But right now it’s not even possible to get even the mildest restrictions through Congress, and that’s—we should be ashamed of that.”
Amidst a spate of deadly shootings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate could revive a vote on the failed effort to expand background checks and ban assault rifles. The measure was introduced after the Newtown massacre but collapsed in the Senate a year ago this April.
