Obama again urges Congress to pass gun legislation

Appearing at the White House with mothers and fathers whose families were victims of gun violence, President Barack Obama on Thursday once again urged the U.S. Congress to pass legislation aimed at helping to reduce the deadly incidents. The families at the event came from across the United States "united not only in grief and loss, but also in resolve and in courage and in a deep determination to do whatever they can as parents and as citizens to protect other kids and spare other families from the awful pain that they have endured, " Obama said Earlier this month, the Senate advanced some of the most important reforms designed to reduce gun violence, he noted. "All of them are consistent with the Second Amendment," he said, referring to the constitutional provision allowing Americans to keep and bear arms. "None of them will infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners. What they will do is keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who put others at risk. This is our best chance in more than a decade to take common-sense steps that will save lives," Obama said. Referring to the massacre last December in a Connecticut elementary school, the President said: "As I said when I visited Newtown just over three months ago, if there is a step we can take that will save just one child, just one parent, just another town from experiencing the same grief that some of the moms and dads who are here have endured, then we should be doing it." In the coming weeks, members of Congress will vote on whether to require universal background checks for anyone who wants to buy a gun so that criminals or people with severe mental illnesses cannot get their hands on one, Obama noted. "They will vote on tough new penalties for anyone who buys guns only to turn around and sell them to criminals," he said. "They will vote on a measure that would keep weapons of war and high- capacity ammunition magazines that facilitate these mass killings off our streets. "They will get to vote on legislation that would help schools become safer and help people struggling with mental health problems to get the treatment that they need," he went on. The President urged Americans to let their representatives in Congress know that they support the gun legislation. "If you think that checking someone's criminal record before he can check out a gun show is common sense, you have got to make yourself heard," he said. "If you are a responsible, law-abiding gun owner who wants to keep irresponsible, law-breaking individuals from abusing the right to bear arms by inflicting harm on a massive scale, speak up. We need your voices in this debate."