Obama calls for gun violence plan

President Barack Obama has set up a task force to frame 'concrete proposals' on ending an 'epidemic' of firearms violence by next month.
With trauma still raw after the Connecticut school massacre last week, Mr Obama put Vice President, Joe Biden, in charge of an inter-agency effort on gun control and mental health, saying America had a 'deep obligation' to act.
President Obama, who failed to put political muscle behind greater gun control after previous mass slaughters, dismissed the notion that the task force would simply be a familiar, toothless Washington policy commission with little impact.
He said the killings of 20 children aged six and seven and six teachers and caregivers in the elementary school in Newtown were so horrific they should give lawmakers a potent incentive for action, even when initial shock faded.
'I would hope that our memories aren't so short that what we saw in Newtown isn't lingering with us, that we don't remain passionate about it only a month later,' Mr Obama said.
'This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms right now,' he said, adding he was seeking ways to 'reduce the epidemic of gun violence that plagues this country every single day'.
'I will be putting forward very specific proposals. I will be talking about them in my State of the Union, and we will be working with interested members of Congress to try to get something done.'
President Obama urged the often slow-moving Congress to hold timely votes on banning military-style assault weapons like the one used by gunman Adam Lanza in Newtown and also on outlawing the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips.
He also called for new laws to ensure background checks for all gun purchases and signalled an effort to expand mental health care, in an effort to deter psychologically troubled people from turning to mass violence.
'We're going to need to make access to mental health at least as easy as access to a gun. We're going to need to look more closely at a culture that, all too often, glorifies guns and violence,' Mr Obama said.
Mr Biden has a history of framing crime legislation from his years in the Senate, has an affinity with law enforcement services and also enjoys the kind of cordial links with many top Republicans in Congress that President Obama lacks.
The President, who comforted relatives of Newtown victims on Sunday, bristled when asked by a reporter whether he had been absent on gun control issues, following mass killings in Colorado, Arizona and Texas on his watch.
'I've been President of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don't think I've been on vacation.'
Mr Obama, who many conservatives believe wants to take away their guns, also said he supported the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines the right to bear arms in the United States.
'There is a big chunk of space between what, you know, the Second Amendment means and having no rules at all,' he said.