United States President Barack Obama made an emotional and passionate address on Tuesday as he called for a national 'sense of urgency' to limit the incidences of gun violence in the country.
According to CNN, the President paused to wipe his tears while talking about the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
"Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day," Obama said referring to his hometown where he began his political career.
Hitting out at congressional Republicans for fighting against precautionary measures, the President called on America to punish them at the polls.
"Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence," Obama said.
Asserting for a need of new and stricter gun control measures, the President said the Congress 'needs to act'
"The folks in this room will not rest until Congress does. Because once Congress gets on board with common-sense gun safety measures, we can reduce gun violence a whole lot. But we also can't wait. Until we have the Congress that's in line with the majority of Americans, there are actions within my legal authority that we can take to help reduce gun violence and save more lives," he said.
