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Obama marks Newtown shooting anniversary with call for gun control Obama marks Newtown shooting anniversary with call for gun control
(about 2 hours later)
President Barack Obama marked the anniversary of the Newtown school shootings on Saturday by calling for tighter gun control and expanded mental health care. A year ago today, 20 children and six staff members were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. There will be no official ceremonies to mark the occasion on Saturday, and the victims' families have asked for privacy.
"We haven't yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer," the president said, in his weekly address. "We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds." On Saturday morning, President Barack Obama used his weekly address to call for stricter gun control and improved access to mental health care. "We haven't yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer," Obama said. "We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds."
The president did not mention the shooting at a Colorado high school on Friday in which a student armed with a shotgun wounded at least two classmates before apparently taking his own life. The president's address is recorded in advance. The president did not mention the shooting at a Colorado high school on Friday, in which a student armed with a shotgun wounded at least two classmates before apparently taking his own life. The president's address is recorded in advance.
Obama is due later on Saturday to observe a moment of silence at the White House and light candles in memory of the 20 children and six school workers who died in a shooting at a Connecticut elementary school a year ago. On Saturday, the Obamas also held a moment of silence and lit candles for each of the Newtown victims at the White House.
Legislation that would have extended background checks for gun sales made online and at gun shows and to ban rapid-firing "assault" weapons failed to clear the Senate this year. Opponents argued it was essential to hold the line on protecting Americans' right to keep and bear arms guaranteed under the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Ahead of the anniversary, families spoke to reporters about their experience. Nicole Hockley's six-year-old son Dylan was a victim. "In all honesty, it's just another day. It's just another day without Dylan," Hockley told NBC News. "There's no need to mark it because every day we miss him."
State legislatures have been more aggressive in enacting gun control legislation but those measures have faced some backlash. Colorado passed gun control measures, but gun rights activists used recall elections to oust two state senators who backed them. Relatives of those killed in the shooting, which was carried out by Adam Lanza, 20, who then killed himself, have asked people to mark the anniversary by conducting "acts of kindness" or volunteering at charitable organizations. "In this way, we hope that some small measure of good may be returned to the world," the families said in a collective statement on the website mysandyhookfamily.org, which launched on Monday. The website includes tributes to the victims and links to individual memorial websites and charitable funds.
The White House has proposed spending $130m to help teachers and other people who work with youth recognize the signs of mental illness and help people get treatment, but Congress has not yet allocated those funds. Newtown is not holding formal events and has asked the media to give the families privacy. The families said at a news conference on Monday that they will be lighting candles on Saturday. Extra police officers will be on duty in Newtown, according to police chief Michael Kehoe.
So the administration will spend $50m from its Health and Human Services budget to help community health centers hire more mental health professionals and provide more services and another $50m from the Agriculture Department budget to improve mental health facilities in rural areas, the White House has said. The families were joined by other family and friends of victims of gun violence for two days earlier this week in Washington, to campaign for gun control legislation. A candlelight vigil was held on Thursday night at the National Cathedral; the group also participated in volunteer activities.
While the Newtown families and other activists have been working to transform US gun laws, only a few states have taken up stricter gun control. Colorado passed gun control measures, but gun rights activists used recall elections to oust two state senators who backed tougher laws.
In April, the US Senate failed to pass a bipartisan bill on extended background checks. Obama described it as a "pretty shameful day". The White House has proposed spending $130m to help teachers and other people who work with youth recognize the signs of mental illness and help people get treatment, but Congress has not yet allocated those funds.
Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona in January 2011, released an ad on Friday featuring Newtown victims and calling for stricter gun control laws. The ad had no narrator and ended with a statement: "30,000 die each year from gun violence. How long do we have to wait for Congress to act."
According to analysis by the Washington Post, in addition to the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook elementary in December 2012, 71 children aged 10 and under were the victims of deliberate shootings in the US last year.
Since December 2012, 43 gun control laws have passed, compared to the 93 laws that passed to expand gun rights, according to data from PBS Frontline and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Gun control advocates, however, note that eight states passed sweeping gun reform laws in 2013, including Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook elementary shooting occurred.
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