New York, December 17
Consoling the grieving families of the victims of the deadly Connecticut school shooting, US President Barack Obama today said the nation has failed to keep its children safe and vowed to use all his power to prevent such "tragedies".

"Can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are doing enough to keep our children — all of them — safe from harm?" said Obama, who attended an emotional inter-faith memorial service held at the Newtown High School in Connecticut.

"If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no," he said. "We are not doing enough, and we will have to change," he added.

Barack Obama travelled to Newtown, where a young man gunned down 27 persons, including 20 first-graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School before committing suicide last week.

The police said accused Adam Lanza (20) used a long rifle and shot the children multiple times in the carnage that shocked the world and left the US searching for answers.

Telling a packed auditorium that the town was not alone in its grief, Obama said he offers the love and prayers of the nation but added that the country is failing at its "first task" to keep its children safe.

"It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don’t get anything right," he said.

Obama said he realises that mere words of condolences are not enough to heal the "wounded hearts" of the parents and friends of those killed in the carnage, which has left the nation "with hard questions".

As the tragedy reopens the debate on the country's gun laws, Obama said, "No single law or set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. That cannot be an excuse for inaction, surely we can do better than this. We cannot accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we are powerless in the face of such carnage? In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, "in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have?" he said. — PTI