President Obama will meet Thursday with mothers who want to see gun control efforts succeed, the White House says, amid questions of whether gun control legislation is lagging, some 100 days after the school shooting in Connecticut.
Obama will meet with law enforcement officials, victims of gun violence and other "stakeholders," spokesman Josh Earnest said. The event comes as Obama's gun violence prevention proposals have faced a series of roadblocks: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., last week announced that an assault weapons ban she championed won't be included in the larger gun bill Democrats will introduce on the Senate floor next month.
Earnest would not guarantee that a sizable gun control bill that would clear both chambers, saying "I don't want to try to stand here and predict the future about what's going to happen in the Congress."
But Earnest noted there were several measures that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and that the administration would continue pressing its case.
"There are some meaningful, common sense things that we can do to reduce gun violence in our communities, at the same time respecting the rights provided by the Second Amendment of the Constitution," he said.
He defended the White House's approach, saying that Obama was "engaged on this pretty quickly" and that the White House has held more than 20 events, interviews and public appearances -- between Obama and Biden.
"I think because of all the talk of the president and because of his aggressive advocacy of this issue, there will be a vote in the United States Senate on whether or not military-style assault weapons will be banned from the streets of this country," Earnest said. "I think that represents progress."
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