Sandy Hook shooting: why Obama is acting fast (+video)
President Obama announced a White House-led effort that will send a proposal to Congress in a matter of weeks, focusing on firearms as well as mental health, school safety, and law enforcement.
Washington
President Obama added new urgency on gun violence Wednesday by announcing a White House-led effort to craft proposals by January aimed at addressing what he called “the epidemic of gun violence that plagues this country every single day.”
Vice President Joe Biden will lead the interagency task force, pulling together cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and leaders of outside organizations and then sending a proposal to Congress in a matter of weeks. The focus will not be just on access to firearms – particularly semiautomatic weapons – and high-capacity ammunition magazines, but also on mental health care, school safety, and law enforcement. The effort comes in the wake of last Friday’s massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn, which killed 26 people, including 20 children.
“This is not some Washington commission,” Mr. Obama said, speaking from the White House briefing room. “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.”
Page 1 of 4
