The gunman who slaughtered 26 people at a Texas church was able to buy weapons because the US Air Force failed to report his domestic violence conviction to the federal database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun purchasers, authorities said.

A visibly infuriated President Barack Obama surrounded himself with tear-stained parents of Connecticut school shooting victims and declared it a “pretty shameful day for Washington” after the Senate rejected a measure designed to make it tougher for criminals to get their hands on guns.

Former US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords met families of victims of the Connecticut school massacre that left 26 people dead, nearly two years after she was critically wounded in a mass shooting.