WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling for more stringent enforcement of existing gun laws, citing the "awful consequences" of gun violence in American society.
Obama says legislation to bolster criminal background checks for gun buyers hasn't been properly implemented, with too many states providing "incomplete and inadequate" information.
He says the system needs to be "faster and nimbler" so it works for gun sellers and "criminals can't escape it."
Obama's remarks appeared Sunday in The Arizona Daily Star. The newspaper is based in Tucson, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in January. The accused assailant, Jared Loughner, was considered mentally unstable, yet because he was never deemed mentally ill by a judge or committed to an institution, he was able to legally buy the gun police said he used.
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