WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "President Barack Obama marked the anniversary of the Newtown school shootings on Saturday by calling for tighter gun control and expanded mental healthcare, and by lighting 26 candles to commemorate the victims.
"We haven't yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer," the president said in his weekly address. "We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds."
Obama did not mention the shooting at a Colorado high school on Friday where a student armed with a shotgun wounded at least two classmates before apparently taking his own life. The president's weekly remarks are recorded in advance.
At the White House, the president and Michelle Obama lit one candle for each of the 20 children and six school workers who died at a Connecticut elementary school a year ago, then stood and faced the candles with hands clasped in front of them. The ceremony unfolded in silence.
Despite a concerted push by the president and Vice President Joe Biden to tighten gun laws, legislation that would have stiffened background checks for gun sales and banned rapid-firing "assault" weapons died in Congress in the face of the powerful gun lobby.
This is what we have to look forward to, keep telling yourselves you are free and be a good tax slave.
