Obama makes plea for gun-control measures

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Thursday to remember the heartbreak of the Newtown elementary school massacre as it considers tightened gun laws, saying "Shame on us if we've forgotten."

But some lawmakers in his own Democratic Party remain a tough sell on an approaching Senate vote to expand purchasers' background checks.

Standing at the White House amid 21 mothers who have lost children to shootings, the president said "I haven't forgotten those kids." More than three months after 20 first-graders and six staffers were killed in Newtown, Conn., Obama urged the nation to pressure lawmakers to back what he called the best chance in over a decade to tame firearms violence.

At the same time, gun control groups staged a "Day to Demand Action" with more than 100 rallies and other events planned from Connecticut to California. This was on top of a $12 million TV ad campaign financed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloom-berg that has been pressuring senators in 13 states to tighten background-check rules.

But if political momentum was building after the nightmarish December shootings, it has flagged as the Senate prepares to debate gun restrictions next month.

Thanks to widespread Republican resistance and a wariness by moderate Democrats from Southern and Western states -- including six who are facing re-election next year -- a proposed assault weapons ban seems doomed and efforts to broaden background checks and bar high capacity ammunition magazines are in question.

In one statement signaling such caution, spokesman Kevin Hall said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is "still holding conversations with Virginia stakeholders and sorting through issues on background checks" and proposals on assault weapons and magazines.

In stronger language this week, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota said, "I do not need someone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state. I know that we can go after and prosecute criminals without the need to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding North Dakotans."

Expanding federal background checks to private sales at gun shows and online is the gun-control effort's centerpiece and was the focus of Obama's remarks. The system, designed to block criminals and the mentally disturbed from getting firearms, applies now only to transactions by licensed gun dealers.