1 Name: 🐾BlackFoxNews : 2013-09-18 22:05 ID:nBvgDz6z [Del]
One day after a gunman killed 12 people in a mass shooting at the Navy Yard in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, President Obama said on Tuesday that it is up to Congress to firm up the nation's gun laws. Obama made an unsuccessful effort earlier this year to strengthen gun laws— most notably the background check system for firearm purchases — after a December shooting rampage at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school left 20 children dead. "Ultimately this is something that Congress is going to have to act on," Obama said in an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo. "I have now in the wake of Newtown initiated a whole range of executive actions. We've put in place every executive action that I proposed right after Newtown happened. So I've taken steps that are within my control. The next phase now is for Congress to go ahead and move." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, said earlier on Tuesday that there is no political will in Congress to resurrect the gun issue. "We don't have the votes," said Reid, D-Nev., Obama argued in the interview that the current background-check system "makes us more vulnerable to these kinds of mass shootings" and alluded to the fact that the suspected gunman reportedly had mental health problems. In the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy, Obama had pushed for state governments to contribute more names of people to the National Instant Criminal Back Check System who are disqualified from owning a gun because they have been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, or have been found to have serious mental illnesses by courts. The suspected Navy Yard gunman, Aaron Alexis, had long been plagued by mental health issues and reportedly sought treatment for mental illness as recently as last month. "I do get concerned that this becomes a ritual that we go through every three, four months, where we have these horrific mass shootings," Obama said. He added: "The overwhelming majority of the American people understand that there's some commonsense gun safety laws that we can put in place that could prevent some of this tragedy from happening." In the Telemundo interview, Obama also defended criticizing Tea Party Republicans just hours after Monday's shooting. In a previously scheduled speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the financial crisis, Obama charged that "one faction of one party" was promising "economic chaos if it can't get 100% of what it wants." Obama noted that he addressed the Navy Yard tragedy at the top of his speech, and that he was constantly in touch with his national security team throughout the day on Monday as they gathered information about the shooting. "On the other hand, what is also important to remember is that Congress has a lot of work to do right now," Obama said. "We don't have a budget that's passed. We're hearing that a certain faction of Republicans, in the House of Representatives in particular -- are arguing for government shutdown or even a default for the United States of America losing our financial credibility around the world if they don't get 100% of what they want."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/17/obama-navy-yard-shooting-congress-gun-laws/2828885/
