Obama calls for some control on gun sales

NEW ORLEANS -- In one of his most expansive responses yet to gun crime, President Barack Obama embraced some degree of control on the sale of weapons Wednesday, but said he would also seek a consensus on combating violence.

He said some responsibility also rests with parents, neighbors and teachers to ensure that young people "do not have that void inside them."

Speaking just days after the shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that left 12 dead, Obama pledged to work with lawmakers of both parties to stop violence, not only the sudden massacres that have bedeviled the nation, but the steady drip of urban crime that has cost many young lives.

"We should leave no stone unturned and recognize that we have no greater mission than keeping our young people safe," Obama said in a speech to the National Urban League.

Obama called for stepped-up background checks for people who want to purchase guns, and restrictions to keep mentally imbalanced individuals from buying weapons. He says those steps "shouldn't be controversial, they should be common sense."

But he also added: "We must also understand that when a child opens fire on other children, there's a hole in his heart that no government can fill."

Obama arrived in New Orleans after a fundraising swing through Seattle and Portland, Ore.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, meanwhile, was distancing himself from an unnamed adviser quoted in British media as suggesting that Obama doesn't understand the "Anglo-Saxon" heritage shared by Britain and the United States. Campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said that if an adviser did say that, he wasn't reflecting Romney's views.

Vice President Joe Biden said the comments were a "disturbing" start to Romney's seven-day, three-country overseas trip. Romney's first stop is London.

While enthusiasm among some Obama supporters has faded since 2008, support for America's first black president remains high among African-Americans.

Obama had skipped an appearance at the NAACP earlier this month, raising questions whether his campaign was taking black voters for granted. The White House blamed a scheduling conflict and sent Biden to address the nation's oldest civil rights organization instead.

Romney also addressed the NAACP, raising eyebrows when he told the crowd: "If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him." The audience booed the presumptive GOP nominee when he said that he would repeal "Obamacare," what critics call the health care overhaul.