Obama Wants New "Assault Weapons" Ban

Not that the gun used at Sandy Hook would have been covered, but why waste an opportunity?

President Obama, joined by the entire congressional delegation from Connecticut, today endorsed a new federal ban on assault weapons in the wake of the Newtown school massacre where a 20-year-old man used an assault rifle to murder 20 children and six adults.

Obama is "actively supportive" of efforts to reinstate an assault weapons ban, White House spokesman Jay Carney said this afternoon. The president, in his remarks Sunday night at Newtown High School, had urged unspecified actions to curb the rash of mass shootings, though as a member of the Senate he had supported a ban.

Obama "does want to move,'' Carney told reporters. "He wants to move in the coming weeks, which is a fairly short period of time. And while he supports, and strongly, renewal of the assault weapons ban, and strongly other measures, he wants to expand the conversation beyond those specific areas of legislation to look at other ways we can address this problem."