Obama: 'we need meaningful action' after Connecticut shooting

In his weekly internet address, President Obama has called for "meaningful action, regardless of politics", after a gunman killed 26 people, mostly children, at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Barack Obama repeated his call for "meaningful action" to prevent a repeat of the Connecticut-style school shootings yesterday, reigniting the fractious debate over America's lax gun laws and coming under pressure from his own party to act. "Any of these neighbourhoods could be our own," Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address to the nation, "So we have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

Mr Obama did not provided details of how he would tackle one of America's most divisive and intractable political issues in the light of the shootings, but gun control advocates called for the Sandy Hook shootings to be a watershed moment on the issue.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York and a long-time prominent advocate of gun control, led the way, saying that the warm words -- however heartfelt - that have always followed such tragedies were no longer sufficient.

"Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough," he said after Mr Obama had made his at-times tearful address to the nation in the immediate wake of the shootings on Friday, "We need immediate action.

"We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress." Proponents on the Left of stricter gun control, particularly on assault weapons, accuse Mr Obama of political cowardice on an issue, failing to take action despite the string of recent tragedies, including the January 2011 shooting of the Democrat Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, in Arizona.

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• Category

  News & Politics

[Commandok1l]

Zionist not Jewish

[Kosmos Erdem]

I dont' see ANYONE in forums anywhere who support the gun control. This is only the jewish media and their puppets in power.

Logical response to this school shooting is WE NEED MORE GUNS! The psycho went to that school for a killing spree because he knew they didn't have any guns!

[Noah Neo]

Americans: Getting rid of the 2nd Amendment (Right to bear arms) to the very people that caused 9/11, print fiat money from the Corporate Federal Bank, brainwashed unwitting US civilians (MK-Ultra), spread germs to unwitting US civilians (microbes and mock in SF), smuggled firearms to Mexican drug cartels (Operation Fast and Furious), etc, is exactly what they want. Check YOUTUBE: INNOCENTS BETRAYED - The TRUE story of GUN CONTROL WORLDWIDE - Share it if you believe it-

[871yt]

Oh wait..I get it...pot smoking makes people President. And it makes them successful and intelligent too? Right? And it makes you clear thinking and

well informed. Not just another befuddled pot head who cant focus their thoughts long enought to do anything but have another joint and watch TV.



[Bacbi]

So I'm guessing you didn't vote for Barack Obama or George Bush then :p

And no I don't really have deep morals. I'm actually really morally flawed. I just don't think I should decide what other people do to themselves.

[871yt]

I have never met a single pot head that wasnt a mass of indecision, mindless hedonism, unable to think unable to get motivated to do anything...memory gone, ambition gone..BUT WAIT..you have "a study" the tells you its harmless. You cant engage reality..but when some leftist piece of propaganda tell you obvious lies.you believe it implicitly. But you are deeply "moral"

What a fvcking joke. Quit trying to think. Smoke a joint and watch TV

[Bacbi]

So I'm immoral because I want something that has been proven to be harmless to be legal? Have you actually met someone who only smokes marijuana, their perfectly normal people, with normal lives. And why do you call it substance abuse? Is it abuse to want to feel good?

[871yt]

So thats your idea of "deep thinking" eh..substitute one form of substance abuse for another. Profound stuff. You seem incapable of serious or moral thought. Everyone should be free to do whatever they want and when it all goes to shit, let someone else clean up the mess, like mommie and daddy did when you messed up your room. Come back when your thinking has advanced beyond dorm room level "deep thinking"

[Bacbi]

I don't use drugs, I just don't think I should decide what you should be able to put in your own body. But if anything alcohol should be illegal and marijuana should be legalized since it's not addicting, you can't overdose on it, it helps with countless of illnesses, sometimes even cures/eliminates them completly and you don't become violent because of it. Alcohol on the other hand kills, plain and simple.

[871yt]

Boy , we sure have a problem with alcohol dont we? I think you can admit that. But in loser thinking your answer is to make things even worse by legitimizing drug abuse too. Like all druggies you dont think..the drugs do the thinking for you. And the drug habit wants to keep going no matter who gets destroyed in the process