President Obama says Newtown shootings was ‘worst day’ of presidency
President Obama appeared on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, talking about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations and priorities for his administration in his second term. During the discussion the President reflected on the Connecticut shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Obama said he hopes that the Newtown killings spur Americans to take action and not let the shootings feel like “one of those routine episodes,” the emotions of which fade with memory.
“It certainly won’t feel like that to me. This is something that, you know, that was the worst day of my presidency,” he said.
He vowed to rally the American people around an agenda to limit gun violence and said he still supports increased background checks and bans on assault weapons and high capacity bullet magazines.
“It is not enough for us to say, ‘This is too hard so we’re not going to try,’” Obama said. “So what I intend to do is I will call all the stakeholders together. I will meet with Republicans. I will meet with Democrats. I will talk to anybody.”
“I think there are a vast majority of responsible gun owners out there who recognize that we can’t have a situation in which somebody with severe psychological problems is able to get the kind of high capacity weapons that this individual in Newtown obtained and gun down our kids. And, yes, it’s going to be hard.”
The National Rifle Association has resisted more gun control, arguing instead that schools should have armed guards for protection.
“I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools,” Obama said. “And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem.”
The President also discussed fiscal cliff, negotiations with the GOP and the failures of Benghazi
Check out more details at the Meet the Press
