President Obama Says Shameful Politics Caused the Failure of Gun Control

President Obama on Wednesday expressed great disgust on the U.S. Congress and said in no uncertain terms that “shameful” politics is to be blamed for the failure of the gun control he espoused. This is the biggest defeat faced by the President since he first came to office.

This came close on the heels of the latest indiscriminate killing that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in mid-December last year. America has been rocked in recent years with similar acts, with the gunman using high powered pistols and assault rifles to take the lives of so many innocent victims; most of them school children, for no apparent reason.

Arms control

Part of the bill is to extend the background checks on arms sale during gun shows and those made online. There is also a proposal for the banning of rapid-fire assault weapons and limiting the number of ammunition clips that could be sold. All of these proposals failed, citing the violation of the Second Amendment.

The National Rifle Association lobbied hard to prevent the bill from being passed. Lobbyist Chris W. Cox later thanked the senators for their support, saying that they defeated the expanded background check that they believed is misguided. Had the bill passed, he added that it would have criminalized friendly gun transactions.

Not backing down

He might have been defeated today but President Obama says that this is just round one of the fight. This he said while meeting with the relatives of the victims of the Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza. Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a stranglehold on Washington by people with special interests. He added that more than 40 senators would opt to turn their backs on the nearly 100% citizens that wholly support the bill on comprehensive background checks and arms control rather than ruffle the feathers of those gun lobbyists. He said that something good came out of the whole deal – the people now know who these senators are and they are not like to forget that in 2014.

Minor victory

The President believes that the lawmakers fear that the gun lobby group would be spending lots of money and likewise accuse them of contradicting the Constitution’s Second Amendment – the right to carry arms.

However, the opponents say that the restrictions failed in Congress because these were already deemed to fail. The expanded background check would remove their rights as stated in the Second Amendment.

There were many Democrats that joined the Republicans is voting for the restrictions. However, they were as perplexed as the rest of the gun control advocates and the President, wondering what it would take for Congress to vote favorably on the bill. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut commented that it might take more killings such as the one in Sandy Hook to shake Congress.