Twenty years ago, President Clinton signed the Brady Bill into law

That law said that if you want to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed dealer in this country, you have to get a background check first. It was a historic piece of legislation -- one that's kept 1.5 million of the wrong people from getting their hands on a firearm in the last 14 years.

But in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown -- a year ago this month -- we know we've got to keep working to build on that progress.

And so even after a minority of Senators blocked commonsense legislation to reduce gun violence this spring, we're pushing forward.

President Obama laid out 23 executive actions to make sure the Administration took essential and rapid steps to save lives while respecting our Second Amendment rights. And since January, we've completed or made significant progress on all of them.

Those 23 executive actions are keeping guns out of dangerous hands. They're providing support for communities to hire school resource officers. And they're reducing the stigma around mental illness.

Now, it's not enough to take these steps on our own -- we still need Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to reduce gun violence. We need expanded background checks, and we need to create serious penalties for gun trafficking. There is no question that these kinds of measures would protect our kids and keep our communities safer.

No parent should ever face the horror of the scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Or a movie theater in Aurora. Or a temple in Oak Creek. Or the campus at Virginia Tech.

We've seen too much gun violence as a country. And if there's even one thing we can do to save a life, it is our most sacred duty to try.

That's where I stand. And you have my word that the President and I are doing everything we can to make sure no parent loses their child to gun violence.