President Obama took the gun-control debate on the road for the first time on Monday, pressuring Congress to take action quickly and telling lawmakers in no uncertain terms that, “we don’t have to agree on everything to agree it’s time to do something.”
A seemingly somber and pensive Obama renewed his calls for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines ban in an address before a crowd of law enforcement officials in Minneapolis. But he sounded a more optimistic tone on legislation implementing universal background checks, which stands the best chance of passage.
“We may not be able to prevent every massacre or random shooting. No law or set of laws can keep our children completely safe but if there's even one thing we can do, if there's just one life we can save, we’ve got an obligation to try," Obama said at the Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Operations Center. “We don’t have to agree on everything to agree it’s time to do something. That’s my main message here today.”
While Obama urged Congress to institute a broad set of gun-control proposals, he made clear on Monday that the “vast majority” of Americans—including a majority of gun owners – “support criminal background checks on anyone trying to buy a gun.”
“That's common sense,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t get that done. That is not a liberal idea or a conservative idea. It’s not a Democratic or Republican idea. That is a smart idea. We want to keep those guns out of the hands of folks who shouldn’t have them.”
But Obama said Congress “shouldn’t stop there” and urged Congress to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons and reduce the limit on magazines. “That deserves a vote in Congress because weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our schools or threatening our law enforcement officers,” said the president.
Obama remarks come amid uncertainty on Capitol Hill on gun control. While many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are beginning to coalesce around supporting mandatory background checks on all firearm purchasers, such measures face strong opposition from conservatives and the powerful National Rifle Association, which has accused Obama of targeting 2nd Amendment rights.
For more on Obama's remarks, click here.
