Well, being that the President finally broke his silence on the matter, I figured it now deserves its own thread.

President Obama calls for more thorough background checks when purchasing firearms in wake of Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre

Obama says an AK-47 belongs in the hands of soldiers, not criminals. Republican rival Mitt Romney says America doesn't need new gun laws

ByTracy Connor / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

It won't satisfy Mayor Bloomberg, but President Obama called for some gun-control tweaks Wednesday, including more thorough background checks.

While he called hunting and shooting part of the nation's “cherished national heritage,” Obama added that “a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals.”

"I believe the majority of gun owners would agree we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing weapons, and we should check someone's criminal record before they can check out a gun seller," he said during a speech to a supportive audience National Urban League. "That a mentally unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands on a gun so easily."

"These steps shouldn't be controversial," Obama added. "They should be common sense."

Obama's speech marked his first public comments calling for new gun restrictions since last week's massacre in Aurora, Colo. The deadly mass shooting during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" prompted Bloomberg and others to demand Obama and GOP rival Mitt Romney take a tougher stand on gun control.

Romney, however, insisted on Wednesday that new laws wouldn't prevent future violence.

"Political implications, legal implications are something which will be sorted out down the road," Romney told NBC News during an interview from London, where he is beginning a three-nation international tour. "But I don't happen to believe that America needs new gun laws."

But later, he appeared to suggest that accused Aurora killer James Holmes bought his guns illegally, when in fact he bought them through legal channels.

"A lot of what this young man did was clearly against the law. But the fact that it was against the law did not prevent it from happening," Romney said. "This person shouldn't have had any kind of weapons and bombs and other devices and it was illegal for him to have many of those things already. But he had them."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election...8#ixzz21kjjJURB