By Jonathan Allen | Reuters – 7 hrs ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined parents of Newtown massacre victims on Thursday to urge Congress to enact gun-control laws, chastising the Senate for failing to support a ban on assault weapons.

The vice president and the mayor, two of the nation's most prominent gun-control advocates, were joined at a City Hall news conference by relatives of victims killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14.

"I'm really ashamed to see that Congress doesn't have the guts to stand up and make a change and put a ban on these type of weapons," Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse Lewis was killed at Sandy Hook, told a news conference.

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"That weapon of war has no place on American streets, and taking it off American streets has no impact on one's constitutional right to own a weapon," Biden said, referring to the military-style semiautomatic rifle used by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook, where he killed 20 children and six adults.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/biden-newtown-parents-chastise-senate-assault-weapons-ban-210046359.html;_ylt=AwrNUbK44UtRzxUAg5nQtDMD