Gun Violence Petition Continues to Break Records on We The People

A petition advocating stricter gun regulations that was posted to the White House’s We the People website shortly after a deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown (CT) Dec 14 had been signed over 150,000 times by the afternoon of Dec 17. That easily makes it the most popular petition ever posted to the 16-month old White House site.

Several thousand new signatures were still being added to the petition each hour. The petition asks President Obama to “Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress.” The president pledged to use “whatever power this office holds” to prevent future mass gun violence during a memorial ceremony for Sandy Hook victims Sunday night but has yet to offer specific plans. The most popular We the People petition prior to the Sandy Hook shootings was from a Texas resident asking permission for his state to secede from the union. It has been signed by 120,000 people. Similar petitions from residents of all 50 states were posted in the days following President Obama’s November reelection.