Obama calls for 'common sense' over guns

US President Barack Obama has said

he wants common-sense measures to

control guns, following last week's

cinema shooting that killed 12 people.

Mr Obama pledged to work with members

of both political parties and civic

organisations to reach a consensus on the

matter, but gave no details.

Mitt Romney, his Republican rival for the

presidency, said changing US gun laws

would not prevent such tragedies.

James Holmes, 24, is being held over the

shooting at the cinema in Aurora.

According to US media reports, Mr Holmes

sent a notebook describing a massacre to a

psychiatrist at his university.

Election focus?

Debate around gun control has featured very little during the US

presidential campaign which has mainly focused on the economy,

correspondents say.

In a speech to the National Urban League, an African-American group

in New Orleans, Mr Obama said he believed even most gun owners

would agree "that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the

hands of children".

"I believe the majority of gun owners would agree we should do

everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing

weapons. And we should check someone's criminal record before they

can check out a gun seller.

"A mentally unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands

on a gun so easily. These steps shouldn't be controversial. They should

be common sense."

Mr Obama referred to a pattern of calling for tougher gun restrictions in

the wake of violent crimes, but not following through.

"Too often, those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying, and

eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere."

In a TV interview in London, where he is attending the Olympics at the

beginning of a foreign trip, Mr Romney said he did not believe that

America needed new gun laws.

"A lot of what this... young man did was clearly against the law. But

the fact that it was against the law did not prevent it from happening,"

he said.