President Obama consulted on Tuesday with a pro-gun Democratic senator who has expressed support for new regulations on firearms as the White House sought to shape a comprehensive response to the massacre of schoolchildren last week in Connecticut.
Mr. Obama spoke by telephone with the senator, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a day after the senator said the mass killing in Newtown meant that “everything should be on the table†in terms of gun control. Mr. Obama has asked Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and cabinet secretaries to come up with ways of preventing tragedies, including gun regulation.
The White House hinted at the kinds of gun measures Mr. Obama would embrace. In the past, the president has endorsed the reinstatement of an expired ban on assault weapons without putting any political muscle into it, calculating that the votes were not there. This time, he will be “actively supportive†of a fresh legislative effort, said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. The president will also support closing a gun show loophole and, “potentially,†enacting limits on high-capacity ammunition clips of the sort used in Newtown, Mr. Carney said.
But Mr. Carney said the president hoped to go beyond gun regulation. “He wants to expand the conversation beyond those specific areas of legislation to look at other ways we can address this problem,†he said.
While he did not talk in specifics, Mr. Carney mentioned mental health, education and “perhaps†cultural issues that may contribute to mass killings. He embraced a call by David Axelrod, the president's strategist in the recent election, to rethink violent video games that glorify killing.
“Every expert on this issue would, I think, agree with that, that there are cultural issues that contribute to the broader problem of gun violence,†he said. “One of the reasons why the president wants to expand the n et beyond consideration of gun laws is because he recognizes that†and believes “that we need to look broadly at all of the potential contributors to the scourge of gun violence in this country.â€
Mr. Obama met on Monday with Mr. Biden, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to ask them to develop responses to the Newtown shootings. The involvement of Mr. Duncan and Ms. Sebelius was intended to bring education and mental health ideas into the process, in addition to possible gun restrictions.
But the White House has cautioned against expecting quick action, especially given the focus on the fiscal issues dominating Washington in the days before the Christmas holidays. At a briefing on Monday, Mr. Carney used the phrase “coming weeks†16 times. On Tuesday, he tried to qualify that by calling it a “fairly short period of time.†Mr. Biden's office reported that after an unrelated ceremony on Capitol Hill, he was heading home on Tuesday to Wilmington, Del.
