He purposely left any mention out of the SOTU preferring to speak of high speed trains and proposals of economic responsibility which will be the last we ever hear that.
Newsweek has this to say:
But throughout the hourlong speech, he never addressed the issue at the core of the Giffords tragedy—gun control—and what lawmakers would, or should, do to reform American firearm-access laws.
No, gun control is not the core issue. If they wanted to speak about a nut that was allowed to roam free even though authorities knew him to be dangerous as the core issue then they'd have a point. But nuts being confined doesn't fit the meme.
That was intentional, according to the White House. An administration official says Obama didn’t mention guns in his speech because of the omnipresent controversy surrounding the Second Amendment and gun control. Tuesday’s speech was designed to be more about the economy and how, as Obama repeated nine times, the U.S. could “win the future.”
But in the next two weeks, the White House will unveil a new gun-control effort in which it will urge Congress to strengthen current laws, which now allow some mentally unstable people, such as alleged Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, to obtain certain assault weapons, in some cases without even a background check.
Poor Rep. Giffords, a second amendment supporter, will once again be used by the Obama administration to further another goal. They want Obama's economic policy and his abysmal SOTU address off the front pages so they'll use Giffords to that end plus they can use the media to paint those opposing such gun control efforts as heartless and evil. Double win!
If they can chip away at the 2nd amendment, well, that's a bonus.