WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has proposed two new federal gun control rules to ensure more information about the mentally ill reaches background check databases, after a series of high-profile US shootings. The rules come on top of a series of executive actions President Barack Obama announced after the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting that left 20 young children and six staff dead in December 2012. The massacre relaunched a push for gun control laws in America and a handful of states have since tightened gun rules.
But the national measures Obama sought, including a plan for enhanced background checks on gun buyers and a ban on assault-style rifles, failed in the US Senate in April due to fierce opposition from gun rights supporters.