Friday’s Connecticut elementary school shooting and other mass shooting this year make it easier for the president and other politicians to push for strict gun controls
When asked whether the Connecticut school shooting would make gun control a higher priority on the president's agenda, Obama’s press secretary Jay Carney told a morning news briefing that there would be a day for discussion on that policy issue, "but I don't think today is that day."
Later, while addressing the nation, the president called for ‘meaningful action’ - that spells ‘gun control.’
Sarah Brady, NY mayor Michael Bloomberg and others advocating strict gun controls must be salivating over the ammunition given them by the 20-year-old psycho gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in two classrooms at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Bloomberg quickly declared that “Not even kindergarteners learning their A, B, Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now, we are hearing it again. Calling for meaningful action is not enough. We need immediate action!”
And for what it’s worth, this school shooting took place in a state which already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.
The shooter used a Bushmaster .223 M4 – an AR15-style rifle – and also carried two .9mm pistols, a Sig Sauer and a Glock. The dead children were all six or seven-years-old and each had been shot at least three times with the rifle. All three firearms had been purchased legally by his mother who was killed by the shooter before he left home.
TEARFUL OBAMA CALLS FOR ‘MEANINGFUL ACTION’ AFTER SCHOOL SHOOTING
Thomson/Reuters
December 14, 2012
Tearful President Barack Obama expressed "overwhelming grief" on Friday for the victims of a shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school and called on Americans to set aside politics and "take meaningful action" to prevent more tragedies of this kind.
"Our hearts are broken today," Obama said, his voice breaking at times during a nationally televised appearance in the White House briefing room.
The president's statement:
This afternoon, I spoke with Gov. Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Gov. Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation, and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.
We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news I react not as a president, but as anybody else would — as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.
The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers — men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.
So our hearts are broken today — for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain.
As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.
This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight. And they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans. And I will do everything in my power as President to help.
Because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need — to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories but also in ours.
May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.
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