On January 16 , 2013 , in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and other mass shootings , President Barack Obama announced a plan for reducing gun violence in four parts : closing background check loopholes ; banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines ; making schools safer ; and increasing access to mental health services . The plan included proposals for new laws to be passed by Congress , and a series of executive actions not requiring Congressional approval . No new federal gun control legislation was passed as a result of these proposals . President Obama later stated in a 2015 interview with the BBC that gun control : has been the one area where I feel that I 've been most frustrated and most stymied , it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense , gun-safety laws . Even in the face of repeated mass killings . And you know , if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism , it 's less than 100 . If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence , it 's in the tens of thousands . And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing . But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months . The Arms Trade Treaty ( ATT ) is a multilateral treaty that regulates the international trade in conventional weapons , which entered into force on December 24 , 2014 . Work on the treaty commenced in 2006 with negotiations for its content conducted at a global conference under the auspices of the United Nations from July 2 – 27 , 2012 , in New York . As it was not possible to reach an agreement on a final text at that time , a new meeting for the conference was scheduled for March 18 – 28 , 2013 . On April 2 , 2013 , the UN General Assembly adopted the ATT . The treaty was opened for signing on June 3 , 2013 and by August 15 , 2015 it had been signed by 130 states and ratified or acceded to by 72 . It entered into force on December 24 , 2014 after it was ratified and acceded to by 50 states
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Gun politics in the United States