Obama marks anniversary with candles at White House

US president Barack Obama has marked the anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school with a moment of silence at the White House.

Before pausing to remember the Connecticut school tragedy a year ago, the president and first lady Michelle Obama lit 26 votive candles set up on a table in the Map Room - one candle for each of the 20 children and six staff members who were killed.

Church bells in Newtown, Connecticut, rang 26 times as the names of each of the victims were read at the town’s St Rose of Lima church, one of several houses of worship that held private services for a community still grieving the deaths.

Mr Obama said in his radio address that the massacre at Sandy Hook will be remembered as a tragedy that inspired the nation to make communities safer.

“We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds. We have to do everything we can to protect our children from harm and make them feel loved, and valued, and cared for,” he said.

A year ago, with the grief of the horrific school shootings still fresh, many predicted it would force Congress to approve long-stalled legislation to tighten US gun laws.

Led by Mr Obama, gun control advocates called for background checks for all gun purchasers and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

But their efforts were thwarted by the gun rights lobby, led by the influential National Rifle Association; opposition from most Republicans and the reluctance of Democrats from Republican-leaning states to anger voters by further restricting firearms.

In the end, a divided Congress did not enact any new gun curbs in response to the Newtown shooting.

There were not enough votes in the Senate to pass even a compromise on expanded background checks that was widely supported by voters.

A handful of Democratic-led states, including Connecticut, did enact stricter gun control measures, but some Republican-controlled states, including Texas, loosened their gun laws to expand the rights of people to carry guns in public.

Surveys suggest that support for new gun laws is slipping as the Newtown memory fades.

PA