By Jonathan P. Hicks

The father of Hadiya Pendleton said that the failure of the Senate to pass a measure that would expand background checks for gun purchasers was nothing short of an act of cowardice on the part of elected officials in Washington.

“It’s very, very disappointing to know that it is going to take something even more drastic to get a common sense law passed to control the spread of guns,” said Nathaniel A. Pendleton, in an interview with BET.com.

“These people didn’t have the cojones to do something to prevent these cowardly acts of gun violence,” he added. “The right thing to do was obvious.”

Hadiya Pendleton was a 15-year-old honors student in the South Side of Chicago who was shot to death in a park by someone who mistook her for another teenager, police said. She was gunned down a week after she performed with a marching band at the inaugural festivities of President Obama’s inauguration in January.

Her death became a national symbol of the heartbreak of gun violence in urban America. Her funeral was attended by Michelle Obama and her parents sat with the first lady during the president’s State of the Union address.

Read More Hadiya Pendleton’s Father Blasts Senate for Gun Vote | News | BET.