Obama Urges Better Background Checks After Tucson Slayings

President Barack Obama called for more effective background checks for gun sales after the January shooting rampage in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

The shootings in Tucson, and “perhaps another 2,000” gun-related deaths in the U.S. since then, show a need for consensus on how to prevent more gun violence, Obama said in an op-ed column published in today’s “Arizona Daily Star.” The U.S. needs “an instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks,” he said.