Carolyn Kaster / AP

Mark and Jackie Barden, who lost their son Daniel in the Newtown school shooting, and their children Natalie and James stand with Nicole Hockley, center, whose son Dylan was slain, and Jeremy Richman, rear, father of Avielle, as President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 17, 2013, about measures to reduce gun violence and a bill to expand background checks during gun purchases that was defeated in the Senate.

NBC News reports:

Despite an impassioned push by President Barack Obama and an emotional lobbying effort by the families of mass shooting victims, proponents of a compromise measure to expand gun background checks on Wednesday fell six votes short of passage in the Senate. The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted.

"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," Obama said sternly, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Volunteers place crosses on the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol on April 11. Activists were holding a 24-hour vigil featuring a gathering of Newtown clergy and 3,300 grave markers to "remind Congress action is needed on gun violence prevention." The number 3,300 represents the supposed number of people who have died as a result of gun violence since the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. 

Related content: 

Gun bill clears key Senate hurdle with bipartisan support

Andy Clark / Reuters

A member of the Vancouver Gun Club, which was formed in 1924, takes aim while trap shooting at the club facility in Richmond, British Columbia Feb. 10.

As the first in a series from Reuters on gun culture in various nations, photographer Andy Clark spent time at a public indoor gun range in British Columbia and at the 79-year-old Vancouver Gun Club where members shoot skeet and trap. The shotgun-only club has about 400 regular members and sells an estimated 1,100 day passes each year. Canada has very strict laws controlling the use of handguns and violent crime is relatively rare.

Read Andy's personal account on Reuters Photographers' Blog

Andy Clark / Reuters

A sporting clay disintegrates after being hit by a bullet.

Andy Clark / Reuters

A Vancouver Gun Club member peeks out from behind the hut where sporting clays are fired.

Andy Clark / Reuters

A member of the Vancouver Gun Club rests his shotgun on his shoulder while waiting for his turn at the club's 39-acre facility on Feb. 17.

Andy Clark / Reuters

Rich Korbus reacts after missing his shot while trap shooting.

Andy Clark / Reuters

Sporting clays shooters walk through a wooded area to their next position. the game is shot in a group of at least three shooters. One person operates the throwing machine, one is the scorekeeper and the third shoots at the station.

Andy Clark / Reuters

A range officer holds a woman steady while she fires a shotgun at the DVC Indoor Shooting Centre in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia on March 22. The DVC is the only indoor shooting center in the province that rents firearms to the public without a license.

Andy Clark / Reuters

A visitor of DVC Indoor Shooting Centre fires a pistol on their range.

Andy Clark / Reuters

Mona Kambo, center, holds up her shooting target while her friend, Kylie Cronin, right, takes a picture at the DVC Indoor Shooting Centre where Friday night is 'Ladies Night.'

Slideshow: Former Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

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By Kasie Hunt, NBC News

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' words during a brief opening statement at a Senate hearing on gun violence were careful, slow and deliberate.

But they were firm: "Too many children are dying," she said Wednesday, breaking up the syllables during her testimony to open a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun laws.

"It will be hard, but the time is NOW," said Giffords, who has embarked on an arduous recovery after being critically wounded at Tucson Safeway while meeting with constituents in early 2011. "You. Must. Act. Be bold. Be cour-ag-eous. Amer-i-cans are count-ing on you." Continue reading the full story.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Senate Judiciary Committee members, from left, Sen. John Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. John Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member Sen. John Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. John Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. John Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. John Richard Durbin (D-IL) listen to testimony during a hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30 in Washington, D.C.

Nick Adams / Reuters

Seattle Police Department officers inspect a missile launcher seized from Mason Vranish, who purchased it outside a gun buyback program in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 26.

Nick Adams / Reuters

Seattle Police Department officers inspect a missile launcher seized from Mason Vranish, who bought it outside a gun buyback event in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 26.

Mason Vranish went to a gun buyback event in Seattle on Saturday hoping to pick up some inexpensive firearms, and he wound up scoring a Redeye missile launcher.

Vranish, who describes himself as a firearms enthusiast, bought the previously used launcher from a man who was taking the weapon to the Seattle Police Department’s gun buyback. People who turned in weapons at the event received a gift card of up to $200, according to the AP.

Vranish paid the man $100 cash for the missile launcher, thinking it would be a great novelty item. He said it was a one-time use launcher that had been previously used. However, police took the weapon until they could find out if it could be legally owned by a civilian. The man who sold the launcher to Vranish told him he had found the launcher in his house and that it was left by the previous owners.

Vranish was given $200 in gift cards for the missile launcher. He hopes to get it back, but now he has “a feeling it was probably stolen.”

Related: Missile launcher shows up at Seattle gun buyback

Nick Adams / Reuters

Mason Vranish, left, pays $100 cash for a used missile launcher outside of a Seattle Police Department gun buyback program in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 26. Participants received up to a $100 gift card in exchange for working handguns, shotguns and rifles, and up to a $200 gift card for assault weapons. The event lasted from 9 a.m. until shortly after noon, after the event ran out of $80,000 worth of gift cards.

Nick Adams / Reuters

Seattle Police Department Sgt. Paul Gracy, left, seizes a missile launcher from Mason Vranish outside a gun buyback program in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 26.

Nick Adams / Reuters

Seattle Police Department Sgt. Paul Gracy looks over a seized a missile launcher purchased outside a gun buyback event in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 26.

Brian Blanco / Reuters

Gun shop customers shop for weapons as they listen to a live stream of a President Barack Obama's gun control proposals at the Bullet Hole gun shop in Sarasota, Fla. on Jan. 16.

President Barack Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban and mandatory background checks for all gun buyers on Wednesday in a bid to channel national outrage over the Newtown, Conn. school massacre into a new push for gun control.

"While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil," Obama said at a mid-day announcement at the White House, "if there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try it." -- Read complete article.

The National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun lobby, released a statement Wednesday afternoon in response to the president's remarks.

"We look forward to working with Congress on a bi-partisan basis to find real solutions to protecting America's most valuable asset - our children. Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation," the NRA wrote. "Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy."

Related Links:

• Obama unveils sweeping new gun control proposals
  
• Obama's gun plans spark little enthusiasm with key lawmakers
• Stop gun violence, kids ask President Obama in handwritten letters

Slideshow: As it happens: Obama's fourth year in office

Robin Buckson / AP

The president's fourth year at the White House in pictures — follow along as it happens.

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