On Saturday, a petition was created at the White House’s official petition website. The petition was created in an effort to ask President Barack Obama to “produce legislation that limits access to guns.”
The petition states the following: “[p]owerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution’s intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve.”
By Sunday, there were already 87,000 signatures on the petition. As of Monday afternoon, over 155,000 signatures have landed on the petition on the White House’s site.
The petition was created in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday morning. A total of 26 children and staff members at the school were killed by a lone gunman who killed his mother at home first and then killed himself at the school as police arrived on scene.
The shooting has sparked more heated debates about gun control in the United States, with arguments seemingly split down the middle. President Obama spoke at an interfaith ceremony on Sunday night at Newtown High School and noted that changes need to be made in the country.