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WASHINGTON — President Obama declared Wednesday that he would make gun control a “central issue” as he opens a second term, submitting broad new gun control proposals to Congress no later than January and committing the power of his office to overcoming political opposition in the wake of last week’s school massacre.
The president’s pledge came as House Republicans restated their firm opposition to enacting any new limits on firearms or ammunition, setting up the possibility of a philosophical clash over the Second Amendment early in Mr. Obama’s second term.
“This time, the words need to lead to action,” Mr. Obama said, referring to to past mass shootings that prompted outrage but led to little or no legislative changes.
He said the proposals would not be just about weapons. “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care at least as easy as access to guns,” he said.
At an appearance in the White House briefing room, the president said he had directed Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to lead an interagency effort to develop in the next several weeks what the White House says will be a multifaceted approach to preventing similar mass shootings and the many other gun deaths that occur each year.
Mr. Obama, with Mr. Biden standing beside him, did not offer any specifics about the proposals. But he promised to confront the longstanding opposition in Congress that has previously blocked broad gun control measures.
“I will use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this,” Mr. Obama said. “It won’t be easy, but that can’t be an excuse not to try.”
During his first term, Mr. Obama largely avoided the issue of gun control, even as high-powered firearms were used in several mass shootings. Asked about his lack of action, the president cited the economic crisis, the collapse of the auto industry and two wars, saying, “I don’t think I’ve been on vacation.”
On Wednesday he conceded that “all of us” in Washington “have to do some reflection on how we prioritize.” And he said: “There’s no doubt that this has to be a central issue.”
The president said that Mr. Biden’s group would propose new laws and actions in January, and that those would be “proposals that I then intend to push without delay.” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Biden’s effort: “This is not some Washington commission” that will take six months and be shelved.
He said the “conversation has to continue. But this time, the words need to lead to action. I urge the new Congress to hold votes on these new measure next year, in a timely manner.”
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York praised Mr. Obama’s announcement and said he offered his “full support” to Mr. Biden in a telephone conversation the two had Wednesday. But Mr. Bloomberg, a vocal advocate of tougher gun control, also urged the president to take executive actions in the meantime, including appointing a new director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The country needs his leadership if we are going to reduce the daily bloodshed from gun violence that we have seen for too long,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The task force must move quickly with its work, as 34 Americans will be murdered with guns every day that passes without common sense reforms to our laws.”
When asked about the fiscal negotiations, Mr. Obama said he would be reaching out to Congressional leaders on both sides to try to move the talks forward even as House Republicans were preparing to vote on their alternative proposals.
The death of 20 young children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday appears to have softened opposition to gun control among some Democratic lawmakers, particularly in the Senate. But there has been little indication that Republicans who control the House of Representatives are willing to accept new restrictions.
Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia and the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that had has no interest in moving any sort of gun control legislation through the chamber.
“We’re going to take a look at what happened there and what can be done to help avoid it in the future, but gun control is not going to be something that I would support,” Mr. Goodlatte told the Roll Call newspaper.
Representative Howard Coble, Republican of North Carolina, said in an interview that he thought the talk of gun control was “probably a rush to judgment” that missed the real issue.
“I think it’s more of a mental health problem than a gun problem right now,” he said. “Traditionally states that enact rigid, inflexible gun laws do not show a corresponding diminishment in crime. I think we need to be careful there. I think we need to look at how the mentally impaired get access to firearms.”
While he said he would want to study any proposal made by the president, he said the rest of the Judiciary Committee majority would probably agree with his views. “I suspect it would be pretty much what Chairman Goodlatte told you and what I told you,” he said.
The president promised in his speech at a memorial service in Newtown on Sunday, to “use whatever power this office holds” to prevent more tragedies like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary. He offered no specific prescriptions; aides have since said that he is looking at tighter gun regulations including a ban on assault weapons and possibly on high-capacity ammunition clips.
But they said he also wanted to examine other factors, including the mental health system, education and possibly cultural dynamics, not just gun legislation. “He wants to expand the conversation beyond those specific areas of legislation to look at other ways we can address this problem,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday.
One senior Republican signaled openness to that kind of approach.
“As the president said, no set of laws will prevent every future horrific act of violence or eliminate evil from our society, but we can do better,” Representative James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin said in an e-mailed response to questions about the subject.
Mr. Sensenbrenner noted that he co-sponsored the Brady gun control bill in the 1990s. “Our country must also grapple with difficult questions about the identification and care of individuals with mental illnesses,” he said. “I look forward to having an honest debate about these issues.”
Gun control advocates have urged the White House and lawmakers to move rapidly to enact new gun control measures before the killings in Connecticut fade from the public’s consciousness. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has said she intends to introduce a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines on the first day of the next Congress in January.
Mr. Obama said he is “betting” that the majority of Americans, including gun owners, will not forget the deaths of the children and the teachers in Newtown.
“There’s no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence in our society,” he said. But he added, “The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing.”
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