President promises mayors to 'combat gun violence through executive action'

At the same time, WH says POTUS told mayors he'll continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 27, 2013

Much like yesterday’s meeting with a selection of the nation’s top faith leaders (and Al Sharpton), the president’s meeting today with 16 mayors was closed to the press. According to a statement from the White House, the president “vowed to continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence through executive action and to press Congress to pass common-sense reforms like expanding the background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking.”

The president has confessed before that while he’d like to do more on gun control, he’s constrained by the Constitution, and today he conceded that “government alone can never fill the void that causes a child to turn to violence.”

While Senate candidate Cory Booker was in attendance in his position as mayor of Newark, N.J., Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was conspicuously absent, as was Mayors Against Illegal Guns co-chair Michael Bloomberg.