President Barack Obama empaneled a new task force led by Vice President Joe Biden to develop comprehensive proposals to address gun violence no later than next month.

In the wake of last week's shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the president announced a new initiative that would include members of his cabinet and outside organizations to generate proposals to rein in gun violence. He said that any effort should include new restrictions on guns, but also improved access to mental health services and better management of violence in popular culture.

Obama vowed that the new task force would not be just another Washington commission, shorthand for the groups sometimes tasked with studying an issue or event but which often delay or dilute solutions long past the time when the original impetus for such a panel has passed.

Obama said he had asked Biden "to lead an effort that includes members of my cabinet and outside organizations to come up with a set of concrete proposals, no later than January," which the president would then push "without delay."

"This is not some Washington commission. This is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read, and then pushed aside," the president said. "This is a team that has a very specific task: to pull together real reforms, right now."

Obama expressed support -- restating the position of his press secretary, Jay Carney -- for certain gun measures, including the assault weapons ban, limits on ammunition and closing a loophole allowing gun buyers to elude background checks at gun shows. But he stressed that those were only components of a broader effort to address violence.

The president suggested that stakeholders in those deliberations could possibly include the National Rifle Association -- the gun rights group that had gone silent in the wake of the Newtown shooting, but will hold a press conference on Friday. The president argued that mothers and fathers who compose the NRA's membership had also been impacted by the Newtown shooting.

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President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden arrive at an announcement on gun reform in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House December 19, 2012 in Washington, DC.

"Their task is going to be to sift through every good idea that's out there, and even take a look at some bad ideas before disposing of them," Obama said of the task force's efforts.

Already, Democrats on Capitol Hill have started to initiate some gun control efforts in the aftermath of Newtown. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Wednesday for Republicans to bring up a vote on high-capacity ammunition magazines by this weekend. And West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D, introduced legislation to study the impact of violent video games on children.

Additionally, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she'll bring up a bill to reinstate the lapsed ban on assault weapons of the first day of the next Congress.

Few Republicans have stepped forward to embrace any of these gun measures, though, and have focused instead on the need for improved mental health services, or school safety.

Obama said his task force's proposals would make up part of his State of the Union address, and he expressed hope that the searing images from last week's shooting in Connecticut would last in the public conscious and help advance his eventual proposals.

"I would hope that our memories aren't so short that what we saw in Newtown isn't lingering with us -- that we don't remain passionate about it, only a month later," he said.

President Barack Obama would actively support an impending proposal next year to reinstate a ban on assault weapons as part of the wide-ranging effort the president promised to initiate in response to mass shooting incidents this year.

The contours of Obama’s plan to address mounting gun violence began to take shape in the nation’s capital as the White House started to outline some of the specific measures the administration would favor as part of its new initiative.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama supports the thrust of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's forthcoming legislation to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004. Carney said that the president was additionally willing to consider limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines and closing a loophole allowing individuals to purchase firearms at gun shows without a background check.

Evan Vucci / AP

President Barack Obama walks off after delivering a speech at an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn.

Carney said Obama "is actively supportive of, for example, Sen. Feinstein’s stated intent to revive a piece of legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban," along with some of those other gun proposals.

The press secretary's comments offered the first glance into what policy specifics might make up the president's vow to initiate an effort to address gun violence, which he made during a vigil for victims of last week's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A steady trickle of pro-gun Democrats have begun to express their willingness to consider reinstating the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 without any serious efforts for renewal. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- whom Obama called Tuesday -- appeared in a 2010 campaign ad shooting a copy of the environmental cap-and-trade bill; now, Manchin said every option should be "on the table."

The shooting in Newtown, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., served as a "tipping point" in a long-dormant debate over gun control in the nation's capital. While Obama has voiced support for reinstating the assault weapons ban in the past, his administration might throw its weight behind such an effort.

But Carney emphasized that new gun rules would only compose a portion of a more comprehensive effort to adress mass casualty events. The press secretary emphasized, for instance, that improved mental health services were an important element in any effort.

That component has been one which Republicans, who are generally loath to support efforts to rein in gun rights, have emphasized in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting.

"I think we need to look at school safety. Mental health, obviously, seems to be a big part of what happened here," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, R, said Tuesday on MSNBC. "And once we have the facts, make prudent, reasonable decisions."

He said limits on firearms might make sense, but only if evidence would demonstrate those tighter rules would be effective. On that count, McDonnell said all the facts had yet to be gathered.

Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, R, made a similar point in a separate interview on MSNBC.

"Yes, put more gun control on the table, but don't forget the mental health element," he said.

But no senior Republican had yet emerged to endorse -- or really, even address -- the prospects for any legislation to restrict access to assault weapons or high-capacity magazines. Because the House will remain in Republican control for at least the next two years, bringing any such proposal to a vote without the blessing of the GOP leadership would be difficult, if not impossible.

Pelosi, however, voiced a more bullish outlook on the current willingness of Congress to take up gun rules.

"Right away -- today, this week -- we could pass the ban on assault magazines," she told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "In the larger sense, let's go down the path of banning the assault weapon. I think that has a better chance to do that now than ever."

Updated 4:36 p.m. - A handful of pro-gun Democrats showed signs of willingness to consider strengthening regulations on firearms in the aftermath of last week’s elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

But that might not mean anything without the cooperation of Republicans, whose senior leaders and rank-and-file members have been mute about their interest in cooperating in a legislative effort to curb gun violence, making the prospects for any new, federal gun law unclear.

After President Barack Obama vowed at a vigil Sunday evening in Newtown to lead “an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this,” several Democrats with long track records of supporting gun rights said they would be willing to consider new proposals, like renewing the ban on assault weapons or limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines that are available for sale.

"Anyone saying they don't want to talk and sit down and have that type of dialogue is wrong," West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, D, said Monday morning on MSNBC. "Everything should be on the table."

That pronouncement carries a degree of weight, considering the source. Manchin has won endorsements and support from the National Rifle Association during his career, and even appeared in a 2010 campaign ad shooting a copy of the cap-and-trade environmental regulatory bill.

Another West Virginia Democrat, Rep. Nick Rahall, also suggested he was interested in action.

"As a lifelong defender of the Second Amendment, I believe that gun safety is essential, but, so is addressing the gaps in our mental health system and the issue of drugs and violence in our culture and prayer in our schools," he said in a statement. "Let us act deliberately, but, for the sake of too many already lost, let us act."

A Kentucky Democrat, Rep. John Yarmouth, a prior proponent of an assault weapons ban who hails from a Republican-leaning state, went so far as to apologize to the 27 victims of the Newtown shooting on Monday for not having pushed harder for new laws.

“I have been largely silent on the issue of gun violence over the past six years, and I am now as sorry for that as I am for what happened to the families who lost so much in this most recent, but sadly not isolated, tragedy,” he said in a statement.

And Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat who has had an “A” rating from the NRA, called the Connecticut shooting a “game changer” in terms of gun control.

“I join with the president – and, I think reasonable people in both parties and the overwhelming majority of Americans who are gun owners who believe that we’ve got to put stricter rules on the books,” he told a CBS affiliate in Richmond.

One of the reasons major gun legislation hasn’t advanced through Congress in recent years is the increased number of gun-friendly Democrats elected from swing districts and more culturally conservative states. The influx of these pro-gun Democrats made new gun control regulations a virtual impossibility.

But no Republican leader – so far – has joined this Democratic chorus in calling for stricter control of guns in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre. And a new poll, conducted in the aftermath of the Connecticut incident and released on Monday, showed that opinion on gun laws had only shifted marginally in the days following this most recent mass shooting.

Fifty-four percent of Americans said in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday that they favor stricter gun control laws – a slight uptick in the poll numbers preceding Newtown, but hardly near the 67 percent who favored tighter gun control in May 1999, following the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. And more Americans – 49 percent – said the most effective way to curb gun violence is through enforcing existing laws, versus 32 percent who favor passing new laws.

That said, 52 percent of Americans now believe that the recent shootings are emblematic of larger problems in society, a sea change from July 2012, when 67 percent of Americans, in the aftermath of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., said recent mass shootings were more likely the isolated acts of troubled individuals.

In the meanwhile, Democrats are girding for a potential fight in Congress next year over guns after California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D, said will introduce new legislation on the first day of the next Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which lapsed in 2004. Other Democrats have discussed including rules to limit the capacity of ammunition magazines, or to address mental health.

One pro-gun Democrat who faces re-election in 2014, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, emphasized mental health in a statement Monday and sidestepped any mention of guns. 

"After multiple tragedies across the country, there is no doubt that we must do more to keep our families and communities safe and that is why I believe we must start with the ever-pressing issue of mental health services in this country," he said.

Feinstein said Monday on MSNBC that she had called the president this morning to enlist his support for her bill, but hadn’t heard back.

"I'd like to talk to him about his help in moving forward with this,” she said.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama wipes his eye as he speaks during a previously unannounced appearance in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Dec. 4, 2012

An emotional President Barack Obama led the nation in mourning the victims of an elementary school massacre on Friday, speaking from the White House following the shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The president not only pledged to assist investigations into the shooting, but also became openly emotional upon reflecting upon the many school children killed or injured in today's mass shooting.

"The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10-years-old," he said, pausing to wipe away a tear. "They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

"Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children," Obama added, "as well as the families of the adults who were lost."

The president said that he has become all too familiar with making statements of grief following mass shooting incidents, referencing recent events at a mall this week in Oregon, at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in August, and at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in August.

RELATED: The latest news on the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting

Those events -- along with a January 2011 attack in Arizona that severely injured then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and left six others dead -- have done little to provoke political action to rein in gun violence.

"As a country, we have been through this too many times," he said.

In his remarks Friday, the president suggested that the time might have come for some sort of work to prevent similar tragedies.

"We're going to have to come together to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics," he said.

Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

Michelle Mcloughlin / Reuters

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

Launch slideshow

In the meanwhile, the president said he was in contact with Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy and other government officials to provide them with adequate resources. Obama also ordered that flags be flown at half-staff through sunset on Dec. 18.

"While nothing can fill the space of a lost loved one or a child, all of us can extend a hand to those in need," reminded the president.