Barack Obama, School Shooting | featured news

The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control. Today's vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December's massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. President Barack Obama made broadened background checks the centerpiece of his gun control proposals.

Recalling the shooting of 20 first graders as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Sunday pledged to put his "full weight" behind a legislative package next year aimed at containing gun violence.

A tearful President Barack Obama said Friday he grieved about the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school as a father first, declaring "our hearts are broken today. He promised action to prevent such tragedies again but did not say what that would be....