Colo. shootings prompt campaigns to scuttle plans

But the administration has offered no detailed, public explanation of how it is following up on all of Obama’s previous promises, and it had no comment about any need for new legislation.

“The president believes that we need to take common-sense measures that protect Second Amendment rights of Americans, while ensuring that those who should not have guns under existing law do not get them,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Romney backed some gun control measures when he was governor of Massachusetts. When he challenged Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1994 he declared, “I don’t line up with the NRA.” In April, Romney told the National Rifle Association he was a guardian of the Second Amendment.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the Republican candidate believes that the “best way to prevent gun violence is to vigorously enforce our laws.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a radio interview, urged the president and his challenger to address gun violence forcefully.

“You know, soothing words are nice,” Bloomberg said, “but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country.”

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