General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama: 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
Uncle Joe
(58,537 posts)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)...showing Trainwreck. Evidently a half dozen or so wounded, two killed so far...
Uncle Joe
(58,537 posts)compared to what will take place when we reach the tipping point.
villager
(26,001 posts)...added to that an armed-to-the-teeth populace fueled on rage, racism, and resentment...
I'm afraid you're right.
Uncle Joe
(58,537 posts)SecularMotion
(7,981 posts)Paladin
(28,285 posts)aikoaiko
(34,186 posts)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.
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Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)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)... but it appears on that issue, he won, we lost.