WASHINGTON: Relatives of victims of the Connecticut school shootings are mounting a face-to-face lobbying effort yesterday in hopes of turning around enough lawmakers to gain a Senate floor vote on meaningful gun restrictions as Senate Democrats approach a key decision on gun legislation.

Their effort follows President Barack Obama’s remarks in Connecticut on Monday night on gun control, an issue catapulted into the national arena by December’s gruesome slaying of 20 young children and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

“If you want the people you send to Washington to have just an iota of the courage that the educators at Sandy Hook showed when danger arrived on their doorstep, then we’re all going to have to stand up,” the president said.

Obama’s proposals — headlined by background checks for more gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines — have hit opposition from the nation’s powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, and are struggling in Congress. Conservatives say they will use procedural tactics to try preventing the Senate from even debating firearms restrictions.