16 Times Obama Shamelessly Exploited Tragedy to Push Gun Control
Image: 16 Times Obama Shamelessly Exploited Tragedy to Push Gun Control President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks on gun control on April 8, 2013 at the University of Hartford, in Hartford, Connecticut. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
By Mike Garcia | Friday, 02 Oct 2015 10:52 AM
President Barack Obama gave his 15th address related to a mass shooting on Thursday, just hours after a gunman stormed Umpqua Community College in Oregon and killed 10 people.
Politicizing the tragedy, he called for stricter gun control laws, as he has in the past.
Gathered below are 16 times Obama has used tragedy as a platform to make anti-gun comments:
1. Statement on the Umpqua shooting in Oregon, Oct. 1, 2015 — "What’s become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common-sense gun legislation. Right now, I can imagine the press releases being cranked out: We need more guns, they’ll argue. Fewer gun safety laws. Does anybody really believe that?"
2. Interview about journalist shooting in Virginia, Aug. 26, 2015 — "Sadly, these kinds of events happen too often. It's a testimony in this case to the fact that local journalists, they go into tough places. This isn't one of those situations. They should have been safe. I think it's one more argument for why we need to look at how we can reduce gun violence in this country."
3. BBC interview, July 2015 — "If you ask me where is the one area where I feel that I have been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common sense, gun safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings."
4. Statement on the church shooting in South Carolina, June 18, 2015 — "We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun. Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."
5. Town hall meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2014 — "Honestly this is not going to change unless the people who want to prevent these kinds of mass shootings from taking place feel at least as passionate, at least as mobilized and well-funded as the NRA and the gun manufacturers are because the politics in Congress are such where even members of Congress who know better are fearful if they vote their conscience and support common sense measures like background checks, they're worried they're going to lose."
6. Presidential Q&A, June 10, 2014 — "My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do just unbelievable damage. We're the only developed country on Earth where this happens."
7. State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2014 — "I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook."
8. One-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, Dec. 14, 2013 — "And on this anniversary of a day we will never forget, that’s the example we should continue to follow. Because we haven’t yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer. We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily."
9. Memorial service for the Navy Yard shooting, Sept. 23, 2013 — "I do not accept that we cannot find a common-sense way to preserve our traditions, including our basic Second Amendment freedoms and the rights of law-abiding gun owners, while at the same time reducing the gun violence that unleashes so much mayhem on a regular basis . . . Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it’s hard, and even if it’s politically uncomfortable?"
10. Speech at University of Hartford, April 8, 2013 — "We have to tell Congress it’s time to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons, and a 10-round limit for magazines, to make it harder for a gunman to fire 154 bullets into his victims in less than five minutes. Let’s put that to a vote."
11. State of the Union address, Feb. 12, 2013 — "Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets. Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that's your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote."
12. Initial Newtown shooting statement, Dec. 14, 2012 — "As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."
13. Presidential debate, Oct. 16, 2012 — "Weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap hand guns."
14. Memorial service for the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, Jan. 12, 2011 — "Already we’ve seen a national conversation commence, not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health system. And much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government."
15. Democratic primary debate in Philadelphia, April 16, 2008 — "I think we can provide common-sense approaches to the issue of illegal guns that are ending up on the streets. We can make sure that criminals don’t have guns in their hands. We can make certain that those who are mentally deranged are not getting a hold of handguns. We can trace guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers that may be selling to straw purchasers and dumping them on the streets."
16. Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas, Jan. 15, 2008 — "We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You’ve got the tradition of lawful gun ownership. It is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot. Then you've got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago. We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets."
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