[Mr Tonka]

I'm amazed at the contempt our president and his cabinet have for our constitutional rights and worse, our system of legislation. The president and vice president's words that were given ON the record are disconcerting at the least. They remind me of rich children who didn't get their way.

The president called for sustained public passion behind gun control, and he called on supporters of background checks to call their lawmakers, register their disappointment, and vote gun-control opponents out of office unless they change.

Biden, who was presiding over the Senate and announced the vote on background checks, reacted with scorn, saying: "This is far from over. This is far from over."

"The United States Senate let down an awful lot of people today, including those Newtown families," Biden told ABC News as he left the Capitol. "I don't know how anybody who looked them in the eye could have vote the way they did today. You know, it's time for the American people to make it clear how displeased they are with this vote and let their representatives know that."

Malloy said in a statement. "The members who voted against this proposal should be ashamed of themselves."

"Today's vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington," the group's statement said. "More than 40 U.S. senators would rather turn their backs on the 90 percent of Americans who support comprehensive background checks than buck the increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby."

The tactics used were apauling as well. But this is not surprising given that he littered the stage he was on with children when introducing new gun legislation.

Obama, introduced by Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., made his displeasure clear in his tone and grim facial expression as he scolded lawmakers and assured constituents that the vote was just "round one."

"Most of these senators could not offer any good reason for why we wouldn't want to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun," Obama said.

The president admonished senators who, in his words, "caved to the pressure" from a powerful gun lobby.

"I've heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory," Obama said. "My question is: A victory for who? A victory for what? All that happened today was the preservation of the loophole that lets dangerous criminals buy guns without a background check."

"When Newtown happened, I met with these families, and I spoke to the community and I said something must be different," Obama said.

"That's what the whole country said," he added. "Everybody talked about how we were gonna change something to make sure this didn't happen again, just like everybody talked about how we were gonna have to do something after Aurora, just like everybody talked about how we were gonna have to change something after Tucson. ... I'm assuming our expressions of grief and our commitment to do something different to prevent these things from happening are not empty words."

In addition to the Newtown families, President Obama was joined by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an attempted assassination in 2011, and Vice President Joe Biden, who has led the administration's effort to reform the nation's gun laws in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Several family members of the Sandy Hook massacre also were seated in the Senate gallery at the time of the failed vote. As the Senate called vote, Lori Haas, the mother of a woman who survived being shot twice at Virginia Tech University, and Tucson survivor Pat Maiach yelled, "Shame on you!" Their shouts were audible from the Senate floor. They then were detained inside the Capitol building, being interviewed by Capitol Hill police.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama...4#.UW9rtL-R_8t



I realize something needs to be done to curb gun violence in America but the socialists, progressives, democrats or what ever you want to call them don't start with logical measures. Lets enforce the laws that are already on the books. VP Biden already admitted that we don't have the man power to enforce the currently laws.... start there. Murder is already illegal and expanding background checks won't stop a criminal from committing murder.

I don't necessarily see this as a victory of the anti gun control crowd. But rather the start of a bitter war between conservatives who can manage their lives within the current laws and the progressives who think they can manage our lives better by imposing more laws. Let's just hope this war stays within the confines of the senate walls and citizen voting booths. The result from the last time the country was split over what was viewed as a fundamental right turned into quite a nasty dark spot in our history.

[Nate4641]

After signing up to do the petitions on the whitehouse page I kept getting emails from about what was going on with the whitehouse and what they are trying to do. Almost all of them were about gun control, and every one of those was one sided and completely against gun owners. The last one I got before unsubscribing talked about how 17,000 people pledged to talk to people about creating more gun control measures. I could be wrong but 17,000 isn't close to 90% of Americans. In fact 17,000 isnt even close to the population of my home town. The POTUS and VPOTUS are very passionate about this, but I either they aren't seeing whats going on themselves or some advisors aren't telling them what a lot of Americans actually want. I have a very strong feeling that the number of people who do not want stronger background checks is a lot more than 10% of the population.