As part of a new push for substantial gun control legislation, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday are scheduled to speak about gun violence during an event with law enforcement at the White House.
The 2 p.m. ET event is the latest effort by President Barack Obama and his team to pressure Congress on gun legislation as lawmakers return to Washington from a two-week recess.
Obama traveled to the University of Hartford in Connecticut Monday where he addressed the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, Conn. Twenty children and 6 school personnel were killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, prompting the president to call for new gun restrictions.
In his speech, Obama encouraged those gathered at the university as well as the general public to call on lawmakers to give gun control legislation a vote in Congress and support what the White House calls "commonsense" measures to reduce violence.
"If you?re an American who wants to do something to prevent more families from knowing the immeasurable anguish that these families here have known, then we have to act. Now is the time to get engaged. Now is the time to get involved. Now is the time to push back on fear, and frustration, and misinformation. Now is the time for everybody to make their voices heard from every state house to the corridors of Congress," Obama said.
Obama flew home from Connecticut Monday evening with family members who lost loved ones in the Newtown shooting. The White House said the guests had been invited to travel on Air Force One so that they could both attend Obama's Hartford appearance and spend Tuesday in Washington lobbying members of Congress to support the legislation.
Obama is pressing for universal background checks, which is very likely to be the cornerstone of legislation to be introduced by Senate Democrats. Many Newtown family members are lending their support to the proposal.
Some Republicans have lately suggested they will filibuster any gun safety measure, a prospect White House press secretary Jay Carney called "appalling."
First lady Michelle Obama is traveling to Chicago Wednesday to speak about gun violence and Biden will participate in a gun roundtable Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
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