Obama vows action to stop gun massacres

Connecticut – U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to use all his power to make sure that tragedies like Friday’s killing of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school are never repeated.

Speaking at an inter-faith vigil in Newtown, Obama said he would use the powers of his office to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

He told residents that the nation shared their grief.

Obama joined mourners Sunday night in Newtown, Connecticut where a gunman on a rampage killed the 26 at the school after also killing his mother. The president said people across the country are mourning with them.

Obama said the nation is left with hard questions. He noted this was the fourth mass shooting incident that has occurred since the start of his presidency almost four years ago.

“I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation,” Mr Obama said, speaking after religious leaders and the state governor.

“You are not alone in your grief. All across this land of ours we have wept with you.”

Obama repeated a call for action against gun crime, saying that in coming weeks he would use “whatever powers” his office held “in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this”.