Obama wipes away tears as he calls for new gun measures

EnlargeAn emotional President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the youngest victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, where he spoke about steps his administration is taking to reduce gun violence.

During Tuesday’s speech on gun control, President Obama choked up and started to cry when talking about the deaths of first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary at the hands of a crazed gunman.As inured as most of us have sadly become to the loss of life from mass shooting, the idea of some monster littering the bodies of helpless children with bullets still has power. That invoking this horror would cause tears was completely understandable.

President Barack Obama wept openly Tuesday as he delivered a forceful defence of new executive actions on gun violence, a set of modest proposals to tighten loopholes that likely face quick legal challenges and could be vulnerable to reversal by a Republican White House.

The president ran through a list of mass shootings that have happened during his time in office, and teared up as he recalled the schoolchildren gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

Story Continued Below

"First graders in Newtown. First graders," Obama said, pausing to collect himself. "Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad."

Obama offered a new argument to counter gun rights enthusiasts, noting that mass shootings have taken place as Americans have tried to exercise other rights, such as attending worship services or watching a movie.

The right to bear firearms is not more important than the right to worship freely or peaceably assemble, he said, and called upon Congress to be "brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby's lies."

“Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. Thirty thousand. Suicides, domestic violence, gang shootouts, accidents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost brothers and sisters or buried their own children," he said, flanked in the White House East Room by family members of victims.

In making his case, Obama brushed off criticism that he did not respect the Second Amendment, citing his past as a constitutional law professor.

"No matter how many times people try to twist my words around, I taught constitutional law, I know a little bit about this. I get it," he said. "But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment."

"We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom," Obama said.