President Barack Obama unveils gun control plan
By: Nikki Henderson
Updated: January 16, 2013
Wednesday President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced new policies aimed at limiting gun violence.
Some of the main legislative proposals backed by Obama and Biden are:
- Requiring criminal background checks on all gun sales, including private sales
- Banning "military-style" assault weapons
- Limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds
- Strengthening penalties for gun trafficking
The gun control plan also included stricter prosecution of would-be gun buyers who fail background checks as well as new requirements for federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
President Obama said "While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil.""If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we have an obligation to try it."
Obama and Biden were joined at the White House event
by families of the Newtown school shooting victims as well as by four children
who wrote the president after the tragedy that left 20 young students dead.
Courtesy:MSNBC
