With just a year and a half left to go for his time at the White House, President Obama is telling the BBC what his greatest frustration has been as commander-in-chief: having his gun control agenda "stymied."
"If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I’ve 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," Obama said. "And if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands...For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing, but it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months."
First, it is complete nonsense when Obama says the "United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws." The U.S. has hundreds of gun laws on the books both at the state and federal levels. Further, there are no laws that aren't already in place that could prevent the type of "gun-violence" Obama refers to. Second, when President Obama refers to the "tens-of-thousands" of people killed by "gun-violence," he's being extremely disingenuous by a) failing to point out that majority are suicides b) the majority of the remaining occur in very specific parts of the country like Chicago, a city that has the strictest gun control measures around. Third, Americans should be concerned about what Obama is working on to implement more gun control without Congress. Earlier this week we saw report about the administration using the Social Security Administration to put people who need help managing their benefits on the no-gun buy list. We've already seen this type of government overreach implemented at Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics across the country.
Finally, it should be noted that a recent Pew Research Center poll shows more Americans believe gun rights should be protected while fewer believe more gun control should be implemented.
Thanks to RCP for the video.
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