The latest shooting took place at Umpqua Community College in the state of Oregon, where nine people were killed and seven more wounded by a single gunman.
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When being pressed about what should be done about the shootings, he said: “Look, stuff happens and the impulse is always to do something and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do”.
Obama’s assertion evoked impassioned retorts from gun rights advocates and many critics who say the underlying issue of mental illness is being ignored in the debate.
On Thursday evening, in another statement at the White House, a clearly frustrated and angry Obama said that “our thoughts and prayers are not enough” to respond to gun violence.
We now know that the shooter shot the teacher, then turned around to the class, and asked who was Christian, at which time he started shooting them.
During his presidency, Obama has had to offer words of comfort to grieving families and communities reeling from mass shootings at least nine times.
“This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America”.
Cruz said, “What caused this was a sick, deranged person and we have to focus our law enforcement efforts on criminals”.
Warren said, “We can not continue with one mindless shooting after another”.
Gun violence in America has claimed a thousand times more lives than Americans killed through terrorist attacks in a decade, yet the country refuses to pass tough gun laws in the face of a powerful gun lobby.
“We already have over 22,500 laws on the books that regulate the ownership, use and possession of firearms”, said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
His irritation over the stymied status of federal gun control reform was palpable as he addressed reporters during a wide-ranging press conference.
“This will not change until the politics changes, and the behavior of elected officials changes”, Obama said.
“It’s not just in the Republican Party – although the Republican Party is just uniformly opposed to all gun safety laws”.
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Obama and Vice President Joe Biden made a concerted push for broad gun control reforms after the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting of young children that shocked the country, but were unsuccessful. Anymore than I should hold the entire budget hostage through my desire to do something on gun violence. And they need to say they know the NRA and its friends will come after them full force, and they consider attacks from people whose agenda increases the chances for gun-related deaths to be a badge of honor.
