NEWTOWN DAD: 'Our Hearts Are Broken, Our Spirits Are Not'

APFamilies of victims of the Newtown school shooting joined President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden Wednesday to express their disappointment at the Senate's failure to pass gun control legislation.

“We return home disappointed, but not defeated," said Mark Barden, the father of first-grader Daniel who died in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

"We will not be defeated. We are not defeated and we will not be defeated," Barden said. "Our hearts are broken, our spirit is not."

Following Barden's remarks, Obama slammed the Senate for putting politics over the victims of gun violence.

"A minority in the U.S. Senate decided it wasn’t worth it," Obama said. "They blocked gun reforms even while these families looked on from the gallery."

"There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn't do this. It came down to politics," he added. "They caved to pressure, and they started looking for an excuse — any excuse — to vote no."

But, he added, "this effort is not over."

"I’m assuming that the emotions that we’ve all felt since Newtown, the emotions that we’ve all felt since Tucson and Aurora and Chicago...I’m assuming that's not a temporary thing," he concluded. "I’m assuming our expressions of grief and our commitment to do something different to prevent these things from happening are not empty words."

"Sooner or later we are going to get this right. The memories of these children demand it. And so do the American people."