Marissa Lang for the Sacramento Bee reports:

President Barack Obama implored hundreds of U.S. mayors on Friday to refuse to accept gun violence and mass shootings as “the new normal” and combat killings with stricter gun control laws.

In his second call for tighter gun restrictions since nine people were killed Wednesday inside a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., Obama told about 300 mayors that gun regulations could save lives.

Speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Obama invoked other recent tragedies, like the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., or the movie theater slayings in Aurora, Colo., as examples of the damage guns can inflict on communities.

....Obama’s previous effort to push stricter gun laws through Congress in 2012 was in response to a mass shooting that left more than two dozen children and educators dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He was unsuccessful because of Republican opposition.

So while the President failed to pass legislation himself, he wants to convince local governments to enact it themselves? Americans have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and it shall not be infringed - even if the President wants it to be.

Read the full story at the Sacramento Bee.