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kpete

(72,046 posts)
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 09:47 PM Jul 2015

Obama: US gun control laws 'greatest frustration of my presidency'

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. "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," Obama said.

video and more
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55b1607be4b0074ba5a3ec72
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33629023

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Uncle Joe

(58,537 posts)
1. We have an ongoing domestic arms race between the people and the police, throw
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 09:50 PM
Jul 2015

in the immoral, corruptive institution of for profit prisons and we have the makings of a growing national catastrophe.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
2. Catastrophe erupting tonight in Louisiana, with breaking news of mass shooting in theater
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 09:51 PM
Jul 2015

...showing Trainwreck. Evidently a half dozen or so wounded, two killed so far...

Uncle Joe

(58,537 posts)
3. I believe what we've experienced so far across the nation in mass shootings are just skirmishes
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 09:59 PM
Jul 2015

compared to what will take place when we reach the tipping point.

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
4. Well, once the economy and biosphere start to fray even more...
Thu Jul 23, 2015, 10:01 PM
Jul 2015

...added to that an armed-to-the-teeth populace fueled on rage, racism, and resentment...

I'm afraid you're right.

aikoaiko

(34,186 posts)
8. We'll see. Typically he doesn't do much after a mass shooting
Fri Jul 24, 2015, 10:02 AM
Jul 2015

With the exception of the Sandy Hook shooting, neither he nor his administration took any action of substance (except some speeches) after all but one mass shooting. Either he's shining on gun control advocates or he has a last minute plan.

[IMG][/IMG]
 

Lizzie Poppet

(10,164 posts)
9. Mass shootings shouldn't drive gun policy reforms.
Fri Jul 24, 2015, 10:42 AM
Jul 2015

Mass shootings are, understandably, huge news. But what they are not is a significant contributor to murder statistics. As the president said, there are tens of thousands of gun-related homicides since 9/11. Your chart of mass shootings, which only reaches back to 2009, has 198. Extrapolate back to 2001, and you have somewhere around 500. Versus tens of thousands.

Yet despite this enormous disproportion, many gun control proposals are targeted at mass shootings. Or, more precisely, at the weapons commonly used in those crimes, often military-style rifles. Yet rifles of any kind, "assault" style or otherwise, are much less commonly used in murders than knives or blunt instruments. It's handguns that are used in the overwhelming majority of homicides. But instead of trying to figure out effective ways to keep handguns out of the hands of criminals, gun control proponents waste time, money, and political capital on (failed) attempts to ban things like pistol grips and bayonet mounts on rifles. How does this make any fucking sense?

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,382 posts)
10. I was hoping that TPP would be his greatest frustration ...
Fri Jul 24, 2015, 11:07 AM
Jul 2015

... but it appears on that issue, he won, we lost.

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