Obama meets with police on gun campaign
2013-01-28 22:06
Washington - US President Barack Obama on Monday
surrounded himself with top police chiefs and sheriffs to crank up pressure on
congress to back his drive for measures to cut down on gun violence.
"I'm looking forward to a robust conversation. I
know it's not a shy group, mainly because they deal with a life and death
situation every single day," Obama said at the meeting in the Roosevelt
Room of the White House.
"No group is more important to listen to than our
law enforcement communities. They are where the rubber hits the road."
Obama made measures to stem murderous firearms violence a
centrepiece of his second term agenda, after America was traumatised by the
massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in
December.
Monday's meeting included sheriffs and police chiefs from
cities including Salt Lake City, Chicago and Aurora, Colorado, the site of a
gun massacre at a movie theatre last year.
Also at the meeting was Newtown Police Chief Michael
Kehoe.
Obama this month took 23 executive actions and challenged
Congress to pass new laws, including renewing a ban on assault weapons, and
closing loopholes that permit 40% of gun sales to take place without background
checks.
Vice President Joe Biden, who drew up the
administration's new gun control policy last week, was at Monday's meeting
after last week taking the campaign into gun country in Virginia, to engage
lawmakers and local leaders.
Virginia, adjacent to Washington, illustrates the heavy
political winds Obama, Biden and top gun control advocates in Congress are
facing.
The driving force in the gun lobby, the National Rifle
Association, is headquartered in the state, and firearms can legally be carried
openly.
Republicans, and some conservative Democrats, also find a
hearing for the argument that Obama's plans are simply a veiled attempt to
infringe on Americans' constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.
