Barack Obama says 'I wish I'd had a father' as he addresses guns in Chicago Barack Obama senior, a Kenyan economist, divorced Ms Dunham in 1964, three years after the birth of their son. A heavy drinker, he died in a 1982 car accident, 11 years after he last saw Barack junior. The president spoke after Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel - formerly Mr Obama's White House chief of staff - urged the city to have an "honest conversation" around the fact that "the lion's share of both the victims and the perpetrators" of gun violence "are young African-American men." Mr Obama called for an end to the bloodshed that claimed the life of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl shot dead a few days after performing at his inauguration last month. "Unfortunately, what happened to Hadiya is not unique," he said. It's not unique to Chicago. It's not unique to this country. Too many of our children are being taken away from us. Speaking two months after the massacre of 20 young pupils at a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Mr Obama said Chicago experienced "the equivalent of a Newtown every four months" due to its high rate of death by guns among young people. The murder total last year in Chicago reached 506, far surpassing the 433 deaths in 2011 and close to the 512 recorded in 2008. Purple ribbons were yesterday wrapped around trees and lampposts lining the road where Hadiya lived with her mother, as a mark of remembrance. Nate Pendleton, her father, welcomed the president's visit and personal support. He said, however, that a solution must come from communities standing up to gangs. "People need to reclaim their neighbourhoods," Mr Pendleton told The Daily Telegraph. Politicians can only do so much, but if people learn anything from my daughter's death I hope that it's not to turn their heads, not to look away from what's happening. We have to find a way to make youths and people in gangs realise that life is precious. It's like a playstation game to them but once you kill someone there's no going back. There's no reset button. None the less, Mr Pendleton said that he hoped his daughter's death would be honoured by a renewed effort in Washington to tackle the issue of gun violence. Mr Obama and Joe Biden, his vice-president, have outlined plans including the reinstatement of a ban on military-style assault weapons, which was allowed to lapse in 2004. They are also proposing stricter background checks on gun buyers. Congressional leaders for Mr Obama's Democratic party have warned him they will struggle to pass an assault weapons ban through the Democratic-controlled Senate, let alone the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where opposition to new laws is strong. "Hadiya has become the poster child for gun control," said Mr Pendelton. I hope people will think about what's happened and realise that nobody is safe from this. Stories of other victims were not hard to find. Around the corner from Hadiya's house was Roland Holt, whose 16-year-old son, Blair, was shot in 2007 on a school bus along with four other teenagers. Mr Holt received a telephone call after his son's death from Mr Obama, then a senator for Illinois, who expressed his sympathy as a parent. "Finally he is beginning a national conversation on the issue, which is definitely a step in the right direction," said Mr Holt. "We need to take illegal firearms away from the gangs," he said. But we also need to address the dysfunctional, poor parenting which is a key part of the culture of violence. Earlier in the day, Mr Obama honoured the six school staff killed at Newtown at a ceremony at the White House, saying they gave their lives to protect "the most innocent and helpless among us.