US Gun Violence Task Force Holds First Meeting

 WHITE HOUSE — A gun violence task force, created by President Barack Obama and headed by Vice¹ President Joe Biden, held its first meeting Thursday to begin to seek solutions to gun violence in the wake of the massacre² of children and adults at an elementary school in Connecticut.

Biden's job is to guide the group of Cabinet officials and government agency chiefs as they consult with city and state officials and others to come up with ideas, and draw up recommendations for Congress.

Thursday's meeting included state law enforcement officials.  Also present -- Attorney General Eric Holder³, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

Obama has said the many complexities⁴ of the gun violence problem in America -- including mental health, education and the constitutional right to bear arms -- must not prevent action.

Opening the meeting, Biden reiterated⁵ Mr. Obama's determination in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 children and six adults dead.

"The president is absolutely committed to keeping his promise that we will act, and we will act in a way that is designed, even as he says, if we can only save one life, we have to take action," Biden said.

President Obama says he will act without delay on task force recommendations, and ensure that proposals are sent to Capitol Hill and acted upon by Congress "in a timely manner."

The Connecticut shootings created an unprecedented⁶ level of national debate, and seemingly momentum⁷ for some sort of action.  But the attention of Congress next year still will be on difficult fiscal⁸ issues.

During a news conference focusing on the apparent impasse⁹ with President Obama over a fiscal deal, House of Representatives Speaker Republican John Boehner would not commit to taking up gun control legislation.

"He has appointed Vice President Biden to lead a commission; when the vice president's recommendations come forward we will certainly take them into consideration.  But at this point I think our hearts and souls ought to be, to think about those victims in this horrible tragedy," Boehner said.

At the White House, reporters tried to obtain a clearer picture of how the president will pursue his gun violence action agenda.

Besides congressional action, which may be difficult to achieve in the face of the powerful gun lobby groups, Obama has the option of issuing executive orders to move the process forward.

Press secretary Jay Carney had this response when asked about this avenue for action.

"There are the specific things already that the president has called on Congress to do, and will continue to call on Congress to do.  There will be other efforts that will require congressional action I suspect, but as we said from the beginning it does not begin and end with congressional action.  There are numerous other things that we need to do as a nation and that we in Washington can do," Carney said.

In remarks Wednesday, President Obama said a majority of Americans support banning the sale of military-style assault weapons, and high capacity ammunition¹⁰ clips, and support laws that would require background checks before all gun purchases.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

3 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

4 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

5 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

8 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

9 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

10 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。