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     The Colorado rampage injected a new tone into the campaign after Obama and Romney had clashed repeatedly over the economy, health care programs for the elderly, and the Republican candidate's tax returns.

     Obama was set to start his second day of events in Florida when the shootings occurred, prompting his team to address the violence at a previously scheduled rally in Fort Myers, Obama told supporters in Fort Myers that the shootings served as a ``reminder that life is very fragile.''

     ``Our time here is limited and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, it's not the trivial things,'' he said. ``Ultimately, it's how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another.''

     Romney echoed Obama's call for unity, saying at a previously scheduled event in Bow, New Hampshire, that he joined with the president and first lady in offering condolences for those ``whose lives were shattered in a few moments, a few moments of evil in Colorado.''

      Following the killing of six people and wounding of then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, Obama called for a series of steps to ``keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.''

     Among those steps was a better federal background check system. The administration said Friday that it has indeed improved the amount and quality of information poured into that system, allowing background checks to be more thorough.

     Romney backed some gun control measures when he was governor of Massachusetts. When he challenged Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1994 he declared, ``I don't line up with the NRA.'' In April, Romney told the National Rifle Association, an influential lobbying group representing gun owners, he was a guardian of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment guarantees the right to bear arms.

     Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the Republican candidate believes that the ``best way to prevent gun violence is to vigorously enforce our laws.''

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