Obama Appoints Task Force on Gun Policy

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he is seeking concrete policy recommendations no later than January aimed at curbing U.S. gun violence.

Obama, in formally announcing an effort to craft such solutions after Friday's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, also called on Congress to take up the issue quickly next year.

"If there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any one of these events, we have a deep obligation - all of us - to try," he told reporters at the White House.

The effort will be led by Vice President Joe Biden and is part of Obama's call for action after the massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Although Biden's commission is charged with coming up with specific proposals, Obama said people should not be able to get their get hands on assault weapons easily and that loopholes for gun-show sales need to be closed.