President Barack Obama hardened up his commitment to imposing restrictions on gun ownership on Tuesday, with the White House promising to support a bill to ban assault weapons of the type used in the Newtown school shootings.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama supported reinstating the ban, which was first introduced in 1994 but was allowed to lapse in 2004 by the Bush administration.

The pledge came amid criticism of the president that he has failed to be specific about which gun controls he would support. Even in his speech at the Newtown vigil on Sunday, in which he signalled that the issue would be a priority, he did not mention guns specifically, and on Monday Carney spoke only in broad, vague terms about gun control.

But on Tuesday Carney said Obama will support a bill that the Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein said she will introduce in January to curb the sale of automatic- and semi-automatic weapons. Feinstein was responsible for the original 1994 bill.

Carney went further, saying that Obama was also considering support for the closure of a loophole that allows easy sale at gun shows. Buyers are not subjected to the same background checks and demands for various forms of ID at these shows that they would if buying from a licensed gun store.

In yet another measure, Carney also signaled support for taking action to restrict ammunition clips, reducing the number of bullets to single figures, making mass killings more difficult. Obama is "interested in looking at" this, Carney said.

If Obama had made such promises even last week, he would almost certainly have provoked a major backlash from some gun owners. But the events at Newtown have left the gun lobby relatively subdued.

From The Guardian