Broad Gun Control Efforts Introduced in Wake of Shooting

Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

Gun opponents held a vigil in front of the White House. At the Capitol, some Republicans expressed support for new policies.

The first concrete responses to the massacre in Newtown, Conn., began emerging on Tuesday, as state leaders proposed measures to curb gun violence, corporations distanced themselves from an event that has traumatized the nation and the White House pointed to gun control measures that President Obama would champion in the months ahead.

The reactions were considerably more broad-based than what had followed previous mass shootings, coming from Republicans as well as Democrats, from gun control advocates and those who have favored gun rights in the past, and even from the corporate and retail worlds. Proponents of stricter controls on firearms said they were cautiously optimistic that, perhaps this time, something concrete and lasting would be enacted.

In California, Democratic leaders introduced legislation that would mandate background checks and one-year permits for anyone who wanted to buy ammunition there. In Michigan, a Republican governor vetoed legislation that would have permitted concealed weapons in schools. And a private equity company announced that it would sell off the company that made the high-powered assault rifle used in the Newtown shootings last week.

The National Rifle Association broke its silence on the massacre with what it called an “important statement from the National Rifle Association,” saying that the organization, which has steadfastly fought almost any federal or state gun control legislation, was potentially reconsidering its position.

“The N.R.A. is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to make sure this never happens again,” the statement said. It did not offer details.

This is hardly the first time that a mass killing on American soil produced promises to curb firearms, only for those efforts to falter as memories faded and powerful gun advocates, led by the N.R.A., rose up in the halls of Washington or in statehouses. In some cases, moves were not presented as a permanent shift in policy; one of them was an announcement by Dick’s Sporting Goods that it would stop selling many kinds of firearms, which could produce significant revenue losses for the chain.

Even as this was happening, millions of American gun owners — about 40 percent of American households report having a gun — remained deeply resistant to any moves to curtail Second Amendment gun rights. And not all the moves announced Tuesday pointed to stricter gun controls.

In Ohio, Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican, announced that he would sign legislation that would allow people to keep guns in their cars at the Statehouse garage and make it easier to renew licenses and to carry concealed weapons. “I think as we move forward, whatever we do, we don’t want to erode the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” he said.

Still, the cascading developments since Friday’s shooting led one of the leading gun control organizations, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, to proclaim a legal and cultural groundswell in the nation’s view of firearms. It is a view reinforced with each new image of the funeral of an elementary school child, 20 of whom were killed in the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, along with 6 adults.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Brian Malte, the director of mobilization for the Brady Campaign.

At the White House, Jay Carney, the press secretary, suggested that President Obama was likely to support the reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons, similar to the type used in Newtown. Mr. Carney said the president, who used his eulogy for the murdered children on Sunday to signal a personal effort to tackle gun control in his second term, might support a ban on the kind of high-capacity ammunition clips used by the young gunman, Adam Lanza, who killed himself as the police approached.

On Capitol Hill, some Congressional Republicans on Tuesday were cautiously supportive of the idea of exploring new gun policies. Senator John McCain of Arizona said he would not outright reject the notion of limitations or bans on certain types of guns or ammunition, and rejected the idea raised by some Republicans that it was too soon to begin debating legislative remedies.

“I don’t see that it’s too soon to talk about it,” he said. “Americans, all our fellow citizens, are talking about it.”

Whatever happens in Washington, there was growing evidence that, in some states, lawmakers and governors were moving forward.

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