After meeting with the families of the Orlando shooting victims, President Obama delivered a strong message against the argument that more guns will prevent mass shootings.
Video:
https://youtu.be/WW2QDvuiw5E
The President said:
Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening? And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. They don’t care about the politics. Neither do I. Neither does Joe. And neither should any parent out there who’s thinking about their kids being not in the wrong place, but in places where kids are supposed to be.
This debate needs to change. It’s outgrown the old political stalemates. The notion that the answer to this tragedy would be to make sure that more people in a nightclub are similarly armed to the killer defies common sense. Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why that makes sense. They should meet with the Newtown families — some of whom Joe saw yesterday — whose children would now be finishing fifth grade — on why it is that we think our liberty requires these repeated tragedies. That’s not the meaning of liberty.
I’m pleased to hear that the Senate will hold votes on preventing individuals with possible terrorist ties from buying guns, including assault weapons. I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. I hope that senators who voted no on background checks after Newtown have a change of heart. And then I hope the House does the right thing and helps end the plague of violence that these weapons of war inflict on so many young lives.
I’ve said this before — we will not be able to stop every tragedy. We can’t wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in this world. But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. We can reduce the impact of a terrorist attack if we’re smart. And if we don’t act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this — because we’ll be choosing to allow them to happen. We will have said, we don’t care enough to do something about it.
The argument that more guns would prevent mass shootings is one of the NRA’s favorites and it is frequently parroted by Republicans near and far after more innocent Americans are senselessly killed with assault weapons.
President Obama was correct. The Republican argument does not pass the common sense test. More people with more high powered guns will not result in fewer mass shootings. One plus one does not equal three.
It is time to act before for more people die to protect one terrorist or mass murderer’s “Second Amendment rights.”
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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