BAD DAY

Obama: Gun Proposal Defeat Is 'Shameful'

The Senate failed to pass expanded background checks for gun sales.

It’s worse than your parents being disappointed in you. Following the Senate defeat of a proposal to tighten background checks for gun sales, President Obama delivered a stern statement Wednesday that didn’t hide his anger. Allowing the father of a Newtown victim to address the crowd first, Obama reiterated that 90 percent of Americans support the idea of strengthening background checks for gun purchases, but a minority in the Senate “blocked common-sense gun reform even as these [Newtown] families looked on from the gallery.” The president chastised both Democratic and Republican senators for allowing themselves to be “intimidated” and “caving to pressure” from the gun lobby. “There were no coherent arguments for why we wouldn’t do this. It just came down to politics,” Obama said. He said the administration would not abandon its efforts for gun reform, but said that “all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.”