Obama Decries Senate’s Rejection of Gun Safety Measures

Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama on Wednesday was joined by families of the victims of the Newtown, Conn. school shooting and former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, before making a statement following the failed gun vote on Capitol Hill.

Flanked by family members of the Newtown shooting victims and former Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, President Obama decried a Senate vote defeating gun control legislation, saying a minority of senators “blocked common-sense gun reforms even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery.”

“All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Mr. Obama said.

Speaking from the Rose Garden, a visibly angry president charged that the “gun lobby and its allies willfully lied” about the compromise background check bill worked out by a Democratic and a Republican senator.

Mr. Obama said that Republicans, and some Democrats, “caved to the pressure” from what he called a vocal minority of people who support gun rights. “There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn’t do this,” he said. “It came down to politics.”

The president said his administration would do “everything it can” without Congress to protect Americans. But he criticized opponents of gun control legislation who had said the lobbying by Newtown families was inappropriate.

“Are they serious?” he said. “Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence do not have a right to weigh in?”

Before Mr. Obama spoke, the father of one of the young children killed in Newtown spoke of his anger at the bill’s defeat.

“Any dad in America could be in my shoes. No one should feel our pain,” said Mark Barden, the father of Daniel. “We will not be defeated. We are not defeated and we will not be defeated.”

For Mr. Obama, whose campaign for tougher gun legislation has been among the most emotional of his presidency, his tone was alternately bitter, sarcastic, and sorrowful.

“If action by Congress could have saved one person, one child, a few hundred, a few thousand,” Mr. Obama declared, “we had an obligation to try.”

He urged people who supported the legislation to register their displeasure at the polls. And he questioned whether some politicians who pledged a new direction after the schoolhouse slaughter in Newtown, or other mass shootings, had uttered “empty words.”

Despite the defeat, Mr. Obama insisted the fight over gun laws was in “round one.” He said the administration would work to insure that states had access to existing data on gun buyers.

“Sooner or later, we are going to get this right,” Mr. Obama said. “The memories of these children demand it, and so do the American people.”

An earlier version of this item gave an incorrect name for a victim of the Newtown shootings. His name is Daniel, not Brian.