Obama skeptical of NRA proposal to put more guns in schools

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) salutes as he returns via Marine One from a Christmas visit with his family in Hawaii, to the White House in Washington, December 27, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:57am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday he hopes to get new U.S. gun control measures passed during the first year of his second term and is skeptical of a proposal by the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby to put armed guards in schools.

Obama assigned Vice President Joe Biden to lead a task force to come up with proposals on guns at the beginning of 2013 after the massacre of 20 children and six adults by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, this month.

"I'd like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off," Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview taped on Saturday.

"I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me. I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem," he said.

The influential NRA has said new gun laws are not a good answer and has called for some form of armed guards to be present in all U.S. schools.

Obama, who said the shooting was the worst day of his presidency, attended a memorial service for the Newtown victims and promised he would take swift action to prevent further massacres like that one from being repeated.

The president has faced criticism for failing to take on the gun lobby after other mass shootings that have occurred during his time in office. While bristling at the criticism, the president has indicated that this time something will get done.

"I'm going to be putting forward a package and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it. And I'm going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again," he said in the interview.

"And the question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away. It certainly won't feel like that to me."

Gun control is a divisive issue in the United States, where the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution, and the NRA has significant political sway.

Proponents of tighter gun laws hope that not having to run for re-election again will give Obama a strengthened hand, but any legislative measures would have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which has been reluctant to support initiatives proposed by the Democratic president.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Schools reopen in Newtown, Washington talks gun control

1 of 14. A U.S. flag flies at half staff honoring the victims of the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the center of Newtown, Connecticut, December 18, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

By Edward Krudy and Peter Rudegeair

NEWTOWN, Connecticut | Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:37pm EST

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Most students returned to school in the devastated Connecticut community of Newtown on Tuesday for the first time since a gunman's rampage killed 26 people in an elementary school, reviving the gun control debate in Washington.

Breaking its silence for the first time since the shootings, the powerful gun industry lobby, the National Rifle Association, said it was "shocked, saddened and heartbroken" and was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions" to prevent such massacres.

Businesses also reacted. One retailer, Dick's Sporting Goods, pulled all guns from its store closest to Newtown and suspended the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles in its stores nationwide. A private equity firm said it would sell its investments in the company that makes the AR-15 type Bushmaster rifle used in the shootings after pressure from a major teachers' pension fund.

Sandy Hook Elementary, where Adam Lanza gunned down 20 6- and 7-year-olds and six adults on Friday, remained closed. It was a crime scene on Tuesday, with police coming and going past a line of 26 Christmas trees, one for each victim, decorated with ornaments, stuffed animals and balloons in the school colors of green and white.

The rest of Newtown's schools reopened with grief counselors and police present, while two families buried their children.

"It's going to be awful, doing the things we used to do," said Miguel, 16, who stopped by a doughnut shop on his way to Newtown High School. "There's going to be a lot of tears."

The massacre prompted some Republican lawmakers to open the door to a national debate about gun control, a small sign of easing in Washington's entrenched reluctance to seriously consider new federal restrictions.

The NRA uses political pressure against individual lawmakers and others to press for loosening constraints on gun sales and ownership across the United States while promoting hunting and gun sports.

The group, which said it had not commented until now out of respect for the families and to allow time for mourning and an investigation, planned a news conference on Friday.

NEWTOWN BURIES ITS CHILDREN

President Barack Obama called for action at a Sunday night prayer vigil in Newtown, and Democratic lawmakers have sought a new push for U.S. gun restrictions, including a ban on assault weapons such as the Bushmaster AR-15-style assault rifle used by Lanza.

The 20-year-old gunman carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition in extra clips and shot his victims repeatedly, one of them 11 times. He also shot and killed his mother before driving to the school, and then killed himself.

When Sandy Hook students go back to school, it will be at the unused Chalk Hill School in nearby Monroe, where a sign across the street read, "Welcome Sandy Hook Elementary!" There was no immediate word on when that would be.

Police have warned it could take months to wrap up the investigation, which was set back because Lanza smashed his computer's hard drive, preventing police from retrieving any data, The New York Times reported, citing a senior law enforcement official.

A day after the first two children were buried, funerals took place on Tuesday for James Mattioli and Jessica Rekos. Each was 6 years old. Funerals or remembrances were scheduled for six victims on Wednesday.

"I just feel its important to be here. I wanted to sit in the back and pay respect. I wanted to cry," said Angela Bergen, who drove 90 minutes from Elizabeth, New Jersey, with her 13-year-old son Jack to attend the Mattioli funeral.

At Newtown High School, three girls hugged each other in the parking lot before starting for the doorway. Counseling was available in the gym for students and staff.

Nanci Wallenta, taking her friend's son to middle school, said she was unworried about security and determined to get back to normal.

"It's an isolated incident," Wallenta said. "You can't go through life being afraid. You can't live in fear. ... We're a strong town."

ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN RECONSIDERED

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama would support U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's effort to craft legislation to reinstate an assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004, and would also back any law to close a loophole related to gun-show sales.

"People have talked about high-capacity gun ammunition clips, for example, and that is something certainly that he would be interested in looking at," Carney added.

Obama spoke earlier in the day with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a gun rights advocate who said he would now be open to more regulation of military-style rifles.

Some Republicans have shown signs they too are willing to discuss gun control after Newtown.

"You are going to have some people (Republicans) who never, never go there," said Representative Steve LaTourette, an Ohio Republican. "But yes, I think most Republicans are willing to have a very, very serious conversation about what this means and taking a second look at what the Second Amendment means in the 21st century."

That amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to bear arms.

In another sign of a possible shift on the issue, Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder vetoed a bill that would have allowed some gun owners to bring concealed weapons into schools.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors sent an open letter to Obama urging him to act alone by exercising his executive power in addition to working with Congress.

U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced on Tuesday it was selling its investment in gunmaker Freedom Group after a major investor, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, said it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus.

CalSTRS, the second largest pension fund in the United States, had invested $751.4 million with Cerberus by the end of March 2012, according to its website. Cerberus bought firearms maker Bushmaster in 2006 and later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group.

New York City joined the list of investors distancing themselves from the gun industry, with a spokesman saying the city's pension funds may sell nearly $18 million worth of stock in four companies that make guns and ammunition.

While Dick's pulled some guns from its shelves, Wal-Mart Stores Inc took down an informational website about semi-automatic Bushmaster rifles. Cabela's Inc continued to advertise AR-15-type Bushmaster rifles on its website, though it said the weapons were not available for sale online or at its Connecticut store. (Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasa, Greg Roumeliotis, Edith Honan, Dan Burns, Bernie Woodall, Patricia Zengerle, David Ingram, Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell, and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Claudia Parsons; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Xavier Briand)

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