Obama Responds To White House Gun Control Petition: We Hear You [Video]
A petition to address gun laws in the United States has gathered more than 200,000 signatures on the White House website since the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The president issued a video response to the petition today assuring Americans that there voices have been heard.
Obama, who said after the tragedy that it was time to stop talking and take action, says in the video:
“We started We The People so that you could directly petition the government on the matters that you care about the most .. In the days since the heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut hundreds of thousands of you have signed a petition asking us to take serious steps to address the epidemic of gun violence in this country. I wanted to take a minute today to respond and let you know: We hear you.”
Obama said that be helieves in the Second Amendment but found it reassuring that so many gun owners believed that there were steps that the government to take to lessen gun violence in America. Obama said that he is currently pushing Congress to pass “common-sense legislation” that would ban military style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips.
“Like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. 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.”
Here’s President Obama’s video response to the White House gun control petition.
When the White House set up We The People they agreed to respond to any petition that reached more than 25,000 signatures. The Obama administration issued their response to the gun control petition within a week of the petition breaking the 25,000 signature threshold. The American people are still waiting for responses to petitions about building a Death Star, letting Texas secede, and legalizing marijuana.
The most popular petition on the website, with more than 235,000 signatures, asks the government to recognize the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.
