TOP WEEKEND NEWS LINKS:
White House Video Address 4/13/13
Aamer Madhani, USA Today
With the Senate set to begin what is expected to be a long and difficult debate on gun-control legislation, it’s no surprise that President Obama would dedicate his weekly address to making another pitch on the issue.
But for this week’s address, President Obama made a highly unusual move and passed on the duty to someone he believes can make the argument better than him: the mother of a 6-year-old child that was gunned down in the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting that has spurred a national debate on nation’s gun laws.
Francine Wheeler used the address to speak of her anguish since her son Ben’s death, and called on Americans to “convince the Senate to come together and pass common-sense gun responsibility reforms that will make our communities safer and prevent more tragedies like the one we never thought would happen to us.”
“Sometimes, I close my eyes and all I can remember is that awful day waiting at the Sandy Hook Volunteer Firehouse for the boy who would never come home – the same firehouse that was home to Ben’s Tiger Scout Den 6,” Wheeler said. “But other times, I feel Ben’s presence filling me with courage for what I have to do — for him and all the others taken from us so violently and too soon.”
The president has only passed on his address once during his presidency. He tapped Vice President Biden to deliver the weekly address in December 2010, while the president was in Afghanistan.
(More at USA Today)
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