Obama on Oregon Shooting: ‘This Is Something We Should Politicize’

 

Obama-Umpquah-ShootingPresident Obama delivered an angry statement on the Thursday shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR. “Each time we see one of these mass shootings,” he said from the White House briefing room podium, “our thoughts and prayers are not enough.

In a 15-minute statement, Obama stressed that the US is “the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every couple of months.” He praised the gun control efforts in Australia, a nation that conducted a mass confiscation of firearms from its citizenry.

The President repeatedly complained about the Republican-led Congress and gun rights advocates. “There is a gun for roughly every man, woman, and child in America,” he said, “so how can you with a straight face say more guns will make us safer?”

Obama claimed that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths and repeatedly called for “common-sense” gun safety legislation. “Somebody somewhere will comment and say, ‘Obama politicized this issue.’ Well, this is something we should politicize,” the President said.

Instead of offering a plan of his own, Obama told voters to change American politics on the issue. He even requested that the media make gun control more popular.

“I would ask news organizations — because I won’t put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side on their news reports. It won’t be information coming from me, it’ll be coming from you,” the President said, pointing to reporters in the room.

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  1. Fritz Coolidge
    Fritz
    @Fritz

    Another mass shooting in a “gun-free zone” on a campus with all of one (1) security guard, unarmed apparently.

    Yet again the Preezy’s reaction is “what Second Amendment?”

    What Constitution was it he allegedly taught again?

    • #1
  2. Great Ghost of Gödel Inactive
    Great Ghost of Gödel
    @GreatGhostofGodel

    And we’ll just keep pointing out that these mass shootings invariably happen in “open season on humans” zones, which we euphemistically call “gun-free zones.” And we’ll point out that when you control for suicides and War on Drugs related gun crime, America has among the lowest gun crime statistics in the world. Ditto the correlation between gun crime and decaying urban environments.

    They can only get away with these big lies because we let them. Thankfully, the tide may yet turn on abortion. Maybe the importance of the 2nd amendment is next.

    • #2
  3. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    I really get tired of Obama’s crocodile tears over these things.

    I get even more tired seeing the press constantly give him air time for his crocodile tears.

    I do have a couple of questions about the shooting incident itself.  Where were the cops with their guns?  No knock on them; they were only minutes away and acted as quickly as they could.

    Where were the campus police and their guns?  No knock on them, either.  Umpqua’s site is down (more likely overloaded at the moment), so I can’t tell if those guys are even allowed to have guns.  In any event, at best they were only a little bit fewer minutes away.

    Where were the students, who were on scene and, by definition, the first responders, and their guns?  Oh, wait….

    Eric Hines

    • #3
  4. Autistic License Coolidge
    Autistic License
    @AutisticLicense

    The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were christian,” she wrote using the lower-case C. “If they said yes, then they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs.

    –NY Post

    I closed the Times article without reading. They may have decided it was better I didn’t know this.

    • #4
  5. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    As Charles Cooke might say, “Then let’s see an effort to repeal the second amendment.”

    • #5
  6. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    Shorter Obama: “We need to be more like the country we fought the revolution against.”

    • #6
  7. Ford Inactive
    Ford
    @FordPenney

    Wow! The president must be really loving this!

    Because the feckless narcissist can get Syria off the front page, which demonstrates his complete lack of foresight or leadership and revert back to his community organizer role and scold everyone in America- “You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”

    • #7
  8. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Instead of offering a plan of his own, Obama told voters to change American politics on the issue. He even requested that the media make gun control more popular. “I would ask news organizations — because I won’t put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side on their news reports. It won’t be information coming from me, it’ll be coming from you,” the President said, pointing to reporters in the room.

    Nice to see Obama acknowledge his true relationship with the press and give them their marching orders out in public, rather than in an email to Journalist.

    • #8
  9. jmelvin Member
    jmelvin
    @jmelvin

    It’s always amazing to me that those who oppose citizen possession of arms would claim that confiscation of those arms would result in peace.  I dare say if that were attempted on a mass scale there would be death and violence that they could only imagine.  It would not yield peace in any sense as the armed populace would understandably respond not only to those at their doors to attempt this confiscation, but they would react to those whose ideals foisted this violence upon them.

    • #9
  10. Paddy Siochain Member
    Paddy Siochain
    @PaddySiochain

    Ireland – gun control laws did not stop the Provisional IRA and loyalist terrorists murdering thousands. Today in Ireland a huge home invasion/ burglary problem in rural areas. Few guns apart from shotguns allowed.

    UK same as above with terror problem. Gun laws did not stop terrorists. Since 1998 just one massacre yes, but no guns allowed be owned by civilian populace apart from shotguns which doesnt apply to criminals obviously. Gun crime went up. Obama is being disingenuous. Oh and burglary rates/ violent assaults and home invasions much higher here than US.

    Australia banned guns for normal people since 1996 except shot guns. Gun massacres went down, but there was no evidence it was due to this. Gun crime and assaults went up.

    • #10
  11. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Well, this is something we should politicize,” the President said.

    What isn’t political to this clown. This man has no shame and is an embarrassment to the Constitution he swore to uphold.

    • #11
  12. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    He says it at 4:47.

    • #12
  13. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:As Charles Cooke might say, “Then let’s see an effort to repeal the second amendment.”

    Ha! That will never happen. Democrats have never done well nationally when they have pushed for more gun control.

    • #13
  14. Whiskey Sam Inactive
    Whiskey Sam
    @WhiskeySam

    I liked America better when a jerk like Obama would get decked for saying something this stupid.

    • #14
  15. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    “This is something we should politicize.” – Barack Obama

    “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” – Benito Mussolini

    • #15
  16. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:As Charles Cooke might say, “Then let’s see an effort to repeal the second amendment.”

    Good idea. Obama needs a hobby to keep him away from foreign policy.

    In the last three months, he’s been pantsed by Khameni, Xi, and Putin. It’s going to give the poor little guy a complex.

    • #16
  17. Pseudodionysius Inactive
    Pseudodionysius
    @Pseudodionysius

    When the going gets tough, the tough fund Solyndra.

    • #17
  18. zepplinmike Inactive
    zepplinmike
    @zepplinmike

    This man is an utter disgrace. It has to be fairly unprecedented for a nation’s leader to have such total and complete contempt for the people and values of the nations he leads.

    • #18
  19. Son of Spengler Member
    Son of Spengler
    @SonofSpengler

    Do we even know anything about the shooter, other than the fact that he was 20 years old? (Legal age for handgun purchases is 21, BTW.)

    • #19
  20. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    The shooting happened at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time–it is now 8:41.  p.m. Wouldn’t you think the 20-year-old dead shooter would have been identified by name by now?

    • #20
  21. David Sussman Member
    David Sussman
    @DaveSussman

    Do to many conflicting reports, I am removing the name of the alleged shooter. The fluidity of the news reporting on this is raising more questions than answers.

    • #21
  22. Lucy Pevensie Inactive
    Lucy Pevensie
    @LucyPevensie

    MarciN:The shooting happened at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time–it is now 8:41. p.m. Wouldn’t you think the 20-year-old dead shooter would have been identified by name by now?

    Yeah.  I’m starting to think there’s something really weird about that.

    • #22
  23. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    A gun doesn’t shoot itself – a person fires it. We have raised a disconnected society – I saw a few seconds of a segment where they took away iPads from small kids -the girls eventually picked up toys, sought interaction – the boys were confused and wandered. They did not know how to function – socialize, talk, play. Eventually they sat with the girls and interacted, problem-solved, socialized.

    I read an article in a popular fashion magazine that colleges are rampant with date rape, sororities graded on whether they entice fraternities -women were used for sex.

    When I check my stock app that came with phone, every story is about latest Google rollout.

    If we continue to be distracted with the latest electronics and become more dehumaized, where a refugee crisis is another evening new story, mental illness will increase, hard drug use increase (heroin epidemic among youth). We cannot wait for government to fix this.

    Our culture disrespects the unborn, the rule of law and police, young men disrespect women,  we disrespect God and all things holy, rampant profanity and vulgarity (spring break here is appalling) race against race, faith against faith – we’ve tossed out conviction – we’ll continue to see the breakdown of society like this campus shooting –

    Kids are the canary in the coal mine – they reflect what they’re taught – the religious communities of all faiths having open discussions, parents, neighbors, making each other accountable, constant dialog and action – forget waiting on government to fix anything.

    • #23
  24. HeartofAmerica Inactive
    HeartofAmerica
    @HeartofAmerica

    I didn’t listen to him nor did I read his comments. I don’t need to since he says the same thing every time. Cue the president and his “if I had a son” routine. I saw the prompt from from FOX news starting with “President speaks…” and I immediately knew he had to stick his two cents in about the shooting.

    When he starts spending even a 1/4th of his time talking about 1) violence against police  b) violence re: black on black crime and c) let’s spend more money on mental health…then I might start listening to him.

    I’ve lived through 11 presidents and without a doubt, Obama is the worst.

    By the way, have they identified the shooter yet? Especially anxious to know his name given he singled out Christians.

    • #24
  25. carcat74 Member
    carcat74
    @carcat74

    I’m going to be non CoC compliant here.  What a useless, gross, piss-filled sac of necrotic tissue this sorry excuse for a man is.  Would this country would be any worse off if he had a heart attack and Biden became President?  Dancing on the warm bodies of these students and teachers so bo can continue to advance his destruction of our country.  Unfortunately (for his plan), thanks to the still-open Internet, it looks like this might become a domestic terror attack, with the references to what religion the victims believed in.  I notice no mention has been made what race or nationality the shooter was….gee, I wonder why?

    • #25
  26. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Son of Spengler:Do we even know anything about the shooter, other than the fact that he was 20 years old? (Legal age for handgun purchases is 21, BTW.)

    Nothing is known of the shooter, what weapon(s) was used, how he got the weapon(s), or pretty much anything else that would inform any knowledge about the potential effect of existing or proposed gun laws. Yet Obama spouts off as though more laws would have prevented this. In school my teachers would have called this mindless running off of the mouth. Definitely shows Obama has no intent to solve the actual problem, only to spout his own nonsense.

    • #26
  27. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    Let’s see:

    Front Seat Cat: the boys were confused and wandered.

    But!:

    Front Seat Cat: they sat with the girls and interacted, problem solved,

    Then:

    Front Seat Cat: rampant with date rape, sororities graded on whether they entice fraternities -women were used for sex.

    Obviously the women were completely helpless in every single situation. If only the guys would have “sat with the girls and interacted.”

    Front Seat Cat: Our culture disrespects the unborn,

    Cultures don’t abort babies. Men can’t have abortions. But no mention of women.

    Front Seat Cat: young men disrespect women,

    Yeah, because We all know all women respect men, Right?

    I’m sensing a pattern Here….

    • #27
  28. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    Son of Spengler: Do we even know anything about the shooter, other than the fact that he was 20 years old?

    His name is Chris Harper Mercer, and he’s 26 years old. 3 handguns and a long gun were recovered at the scene. There is a MySpace page of a guy with that name from Torrance, CA, that is very pro-IRA.

    • #28
  29. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Obama can prove his sincerity (which I doubt) about “common sense gun control” by making the White House a gun-free zone, and disarming the Secret Service.

    Guns for me, but not for thee.

    • #29
  30. Trink Coolidge
    Trink
    @Trink

    carcat74:I’m going to be non CoC compliant here. What a useless, gross, piss-filled sac of necrotic tissue this sorry excuse for a man is. Does anyone doubt this country would be any worse off if he had a heart attack and Biden became President? Dancing on the warm bodies of these students and teachers so bo can continue to advance his destruction of our country. Unfortunately (for his plan), thanks to the still-open Internet, it looks like this might become a domestic terror attack, with the references to what religion the victims believed in. I notice no mention has been made what race or nationality the shooter was….gee, I wonder why?

    I read this to my husband and he said:  “Quick!  Copy or screen save that before they take it down!”   He gets so furious during the news when the prez makes an appearance that I have to run and close the windows.

    • #30
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