The White House recruited national law enforcement leaders on Thursday to help shape a response to last week's school shootings in Connecticut, hoping to use the credibility of America's police officers to build support for measures curbing the spread of assault weapons.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with a dozen leaders of police and sheriff's organizations, including police chiefs from Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland and Virginia, as he kicked off a task force to develop proposals by next month. By enlisting police officers, the White House hoped to blunt criticism by conservatives wary of gun regulations.
“You're the first group that I wanted to speak with†after being assigned by President Obama to produce a plan to reduce mass killings, Mr. Biden told the group during a few minutes of remarks in front of reporters. “I want to hear your views because for anything to get done, we're going to need your advocacy. We're going to need your advocac y with law enforcement organizations in this country.â€
Mr. Biden noted that he worked with many of the same groups nearly two decades ago when as a senator he helped usher through Congress a crime bill that included a ban on assault weapons. That ban passed in 1994 but expired in 2004, and its effectiveness was debated. Mr. Biden repeated President Obama's support for renewing it and suggested they would seek more limits even if “we can only save one life.â€
After reporters were ushered out of the room, Mr. Biden solicited ideas from the gathered police officers. One person who was in the room said it was an open-ended discussion of what might work rather than an attempt by the White House to dictate what it planned to do. The visiting law enforcement leaders were then asked to come up with spe cific ideas and send them to the White House.
“I‘ve been in Washington over 20 years and this was unique, it really was,†Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum and a participant in the session, said in an interview afterward. “It was almost like you were sitting at a domestic national security meeting. There is a sense of importance and urgency to this issue, which is impressive.â€
Mr. Biden was joined by high-ranking cabinet and White House officials, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary; Arne Duncan, the education secretary; Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary; and Valerie Jarrett, the president's senior adviser.
The guests included Charles H. Ramsey, the police commissioner of Philadelphia and president of both the Police Executive Research Forum and the Major Cities Chiefs Association; Thomas J. Nee, a Boston police officer and t he president of the National Association of Police Organizations; James Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police; Rich Stanek, the sheriff of Hennepin County, Minn., and the president of the Major County Sheriffs' Association; and Walter McNeil, the police chief of Quincy, Fla., and the immediate past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
After the meeting, Mr. Holder traveled to Newtown, Conn., to meet with investigators and with police officers who were among the first to respond to the school where a gunman shot to death 26 people, including 20 children, then killed himself.
A new poll released Thursday suggested a shift in public attitudes toward gun control since the massacre but still suggested the challenge Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden will have in persuading Congress.
Just under half of all America ns, or 49 percent, now say it is more important to control gun ownership, while 42 percent said it was more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns, according to the Pew Research Center. This represented the first time since Mr. Obama took office that significantly more Americans prioritized control over rights. But it was still far lower than the 66 percent who picked gun control over gun rights more than a decade ago.
