--- title: Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote | TIME description: President Obama says “This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," as the Senate votes down gun control measure. canonical: https://time.com/video/7YnQi8Ib/ og:title: Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote og:description: President Obama says “This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," as the Senate votes down gun control measure. og:url: https://time.com/video/7YnQi8Ib/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7YnQi8Ib/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote twitter:description: President Obama says “This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," as the Senate votes down gun control measure. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7YnQi8Ib/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Denounces Gun Bill Vote](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7YnQi8Ib.m3u8) (13:24)  _Published 2013-04-18. President Obama says “This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," as the Senate votes down gun control measure._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:32 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Senate to Vote on Gun Control Measures](/video/2hG5FIFZ/) ### Senate to Vote on Gun Control Measures [TIME Raw: Presidential Candidates React to Obama's Gun Control Measure](/video/KtkDNhKC/) ### TIME Raw: Presidential Candidates React to Obama's Gun Control Measure [President Obama on Guns: 'We Should Be Ashamed'](/video/obuEC54k/) ### President Obama on Guns: 'We Should Be Ashamed' --- ## Transcript A few months ago, in response to too many tragedies, including the shootings of a, United States Congresswoman, Gabby Gifford, who's here today, and the murder of 20, innocent schoolchildren and their teachers, this country took up the cause of protecting more of our people from gun violence. Families that know unspeakable grief summon the courage to petition their elected leaders. Not just to honor the memory of their children, but to protect the lives of all of our children. A few minutes ago a minority in the United States Senate decided it wasn't worth it. They blocked common sense gun reforms even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery. By now it's well know that 90 % of the American people support universal background checks that make it harder for a dangerous person to buy a gun. We're talking about convicted felons, people convicted of domestic violence, people with a severe mental illness. 90 % of Americans support that idea. Most Americans thinks that's already the law. And a few minutes ago, 90 % of Democrats in the Senate voted for that idea. But it's not gonna happen, because 90 % of Republicans in the Senate just voted against that idea. A majority of Senators voted yes to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks. But by this continuing distortion of Senate rules, a minority was able to block it from moving forward. I'm gonna speak plainly and honestly about what's happened here. Because the American people are trying to figure, how can something have 90 % support, and yet not happen. We had a Democrat, and a Republican, both gun owners, both fierce defenders of our Second Amendment, with A grades from the NRA. Come together and work together to write a common sense compromise on background checks. And I wanna thank Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey for their courage in doing that. That was not easy, given their traditional strong support for second amendment rights. As they said, nobody could honestly claim that the package they put together infringed on our Second Amendment rights. All it did was extend the same background check rules that already apply to guns purchased from a dealer, to guns purchased at gun shows or over the internet. So 60 % of guns are already purchased through a background check system. This would have covered a lot of the guns that are currently outside that system. Their legislation showed respect for gun owners. And it showed respect for the victims of gun violence. And Gabby Giffords by the way is both. She's a gun owner and a victim of gun violence. She is a Westerner and a Moderate and she supports these background checks. In fact, even the NRA used to support expanded background checks. The current leader of the NRA used to support these background checks. So while this compromise didn't contain everything I wanted or everything that these families wanted, it did represent progress. It represented moderation, and common sense. That's why 90 % of American people supported it. But instead of supporting this compromise, the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill. They claim that it would create some sort of Big Brother gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite. This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry, plain and simple, right there in the text. But that didn't matter. And unfortunately this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose. Because those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners. And that in turn intimidated a lot of senators. And I talked to several of these senators over the past few weeks. And they're all good people. I know all of them were shocked by tragedies like Newtown. And I also understand that they come from states that are strongly pro gun. And I've consistently said, that there are regional differences when it comes to guns. And that both sides have to listen to each other. But the fact is, most of these senators could not offer any good reason why we wouldn't to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun. There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn't do this. It came down to politics. The worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections. They worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti- second amendment. And obviously a lot of Republicans have that fear, but Democrats have that fear too. And so they caved to the pressure. And they started looking for an excuse, any excuse, to vote no. One common argument I heard was that this legislation wouldn't prevent all future massacres. And that's true. As I said from the start, no single piece of legislation can stop every act of violence and evil. We learned that tragically just two days ago. But if action by congress could have saved one person, one child, a few hundred, a few thousand. If could prevented those people from losing their lives to gun violence in the future, while preserving our second amendment rights, we had an obligation to try. And this legislation met that test. And too many senators failed theirs. I've heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory. And my question is, a, a victory for who? A victory for what? All that happened today was the preservation of the loophole that lets dangerous criminals buy guns without a background check. That didn't make our kids safer. Victory for not doing something that 90 % of Americans, 80 % of Republicans, the vast majority of your constituents wanted to get done? It begs the question, who, who are we here to represent? [ LAUGH ] I've heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced, a prop somebody called them, emotional blackmail, some outlets said. Are they serious? Do we really think that thousands of families who's lives have been shattered by gun violence don't have a right to weigh in on this issue? Do we think that their emotions, their loss, is not relevant to this debate? So all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington. But this effort is not over. I want to make it clear to the American people, we can still bring about meaningful changes that reduce gun violence, so long as the American people don't give up on it. Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities. We're gonna address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system. We're gonna give law enforcement more information about lost and stolen guns so it can do its job. We're gonna help to put in place emergency plans to protect our children in their schools. But we can do more if congress gets its act together. And if this congress refuses to listen to the American people and past common sense gun legislation, then the real impact is going to have to come from the voters. [ SOUND ] To all the people who supported this legislation, law enforcement and responsible gun owners, Democrats and Republicans, urban moms, rural hunters who ever you are, you need to let your represenatives in crongress know you are disapointed. And then if they don't act this time, you will remember come election time. To the wide majority of NRA households, who supported this legislation, you need to let your leadership and lobbyists in Washington know they didn't represent your views on this one. The point is, those who care deeply about preventing more and more gun violence, will have to be as passionate and as organized and as vocal as those who blocked these common sense steps to help keep our kids safe. Ultimately, you out number those who argue the other way. But they're better organized, they're better financed. They've been at it longer. And, they make sure to stay focused on this one issue during election time. And that's the reason why you can have something that 90 % of Americans support and you can't get it through the Senate or the House of Representatives. So to change Washington, you, the American people are gonna have to sustain some passion about this. And when necessary, you've gotta send the right people to Washington. And that requires strength, and it requires persistance. And that's the one thing that these families should have inspired in all of us. I still don't know how they have been able to muster up the, the strength to, to do what they've been doing over the last several weeks, last several months. And I see this as just round one. Now, when Newtown happened I, met with these families and I spoke to the community. And I said, something must be different right now. We're gonna have to change. That's what the whole country said. Everybody talked about how we were gonna change something, to make sure this didn't happen, again. Just like everybody talked about how we need to do something after Aurora. Everybody talked about we need to change something after Tucson. And I'm assuming that the emotions that we've all fend, felt since Newtown, the emotions that we've all felt since Tucson and Aurora and Chicago. The pain we share with these families and families all across the country who've lost a loved one to gun violence. I'm assuming that's not a temporary thing. I'm assuming, our expressions of grief and our commitment to do something different, to prevent these things from happening are not empty words. I believe we're gonna be able to get this done. Sooner or late, we are gonna get this right. The memories of these children demand it, and so the American people. 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