President Obama sought on Friday to enlist supporters to mount a public lobbying campaign on behalf of gun control in the wake of the mass killings in Newtown, Conn., suggesting that Congress would listen only if forced to by a populist backlash to gun violence.
In a video posted on the White House Web site, Mr. Obama responded to a pet ition demanding action on gun control. “We hear you,†the president said as he again vowed to push to Congress in the new year to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.
“I can't do it alone,†he added. “I need your help. If we're going to succeed, it's going to take a sustained effort from mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, law enforcement and responsible gun owners, organizing, speaking up, calling their members of Congress as many times as it takes, standing up and saying enough on behalf of all our kids. That's how change happens.â€
The video suggested that Mr. Obama might make a more serious effort to advance gun control than he had after previous multiple shootings during his presidency. Until now, Mr. Obama typically responded with words of grief and commitment, calling again on lawmakers to renew an expired assault weapon ban but not making a concerted effort to rally supporters to his si de and pressure Congress. This time will be different, Mr. Obama said earlier in the week, calling gun violence a “central issue†for his second term.
Mr. Obama posted his video pitch for help just hours before the National Rifle Association planned to hold a Washington news conference providing its first extended response to the massacre in Newtown, Conn., that claimed the lives of 27 people, including 20 children, plus the gunman, who shot himself.
Mr. Obama was careful to express respect for what he called the “strong tradition of gun ownership†in the United States. In exit polls, 42 percent of voters in 2008 reported having a gun in their house or property, while a 2011 Gallup survey found that 47 percent of Americans had a gun at home, the highest since 1993.
The president said he believed the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual right to own guns and added that most gun owners “are responsible.†But he added: “It's encouraging that many gun owners have stepped up this week to say there are steps we can take to prevent more tragedies like the one in Newtown, steps that both protect our rights and protect our kids,†he said.
The video was posted in response to a petition posted on a section of the White House Web site open to submiss ions from the public. The petition to “immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress†has gathered about 200,000 signatures since it was posted within hours of the shootings last Friday.
That was the second-highest number of signatures for any petition on the White House site, behind the nearly 233,000 who signed one demanding that the president designate as a “hate group†the Westboro Baptist Church, known for staging virulently anti-gay protests at military funerals.
No. 6 on the list expressed another view on the gun debate. “We ask President Obama to support law abiding gun owners in this time of tragedy,†it said, gathering about 57,000 signatures.< /p>
The White House petition section draws a variety of serious and far-fetched suggestions. More than 121,000 have signed a petition to allow Texas to secede from the Union, and others have sought secession for Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama. About 41,000 used the White House site to demand the impeachment of its occupant, Mr. Obama. Another 31,000 signed one asking the president to begin construction of a Death Star, as in “Star Wars,†by 2016.
But the White House hopes to tap into its base of supporters to raise the stakes fo r Congress, which has not passed a major gun control measure since 1994, when the original assault weapon ban was enacted only to trigger a backlash among gun rights supporters who helped vote out the Democratic majorities.
Follow Peter Baker on Twitter at @peterbakernyt.
