President Barack Obama will mention gun control in a state of the union address for the first time during his presidency, saying today that he will make specific proposals to increase gun control following the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn.
Guns will play a central role in the most important presidential speech of the year since President Bill Clinton’s final address to Congress in 2000,
reported The Hill.
Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to head up a task force that will make recommendations for new gun laws, the president said at a White House press conference Wednesday.
A revival of the 1990s-era assault weapons ban is expected to come up quickly after the next Congress begins in January, with additional language meant to limit the size of magazines and strips of bullets available for legal guns as well.
“I will be talking about [specific proposals] in my State of the Union, and we will be working with interested members of Congress to try to get something done,” Obama said.
Clinton mentioned guns 22 times in his final address after making gun control a central tenet of his administration, including the passage of the original assault weapons ban in 1994. It expired in 2004 and was not picked up again by the Republican-led Congress or President George W. Bush.
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