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'This is not normal': Obama releases emotional statement on Planned Parenthood shooting
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama released a statement on Saturday calling for gun control in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the day before.
"This is not normal," Obama said. "We can't let it become normal."
He then called to curtail the "easy accessibility of weapons of war" for some people.
"If we truly care about this — if we're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them," Obama continued.
"Period," he added. "Enough is enough."
On Friday, a gunman killed three people, including a police officer, at a Planned Parenthood office in Colorado Springs. Authorities said another nine people, including officers, were brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds. A suspect is in custody but the police did not describe his motives, according to The New York Times.
"The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence — people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time," Obama said. "And yet, two days after Thanksgiving, that's what we are forced to do again."
Obama has repeatedly called for new gun-control measures after mass shootings during his tenure in office. The president's critics accuse him of politicizing tragedies, but Obama argues that there is a public-policy issue at hand that could lead to lives being saved.
"This is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together," a visibly angry Obama said after an October shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, left 10 people dead. "This is a political choice we make to allow this to happen every few months in America."
However, Obama's chances of enacting new federal gun-control measures would appear relatively low. After the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, there was a strong push for expanded background checks, but gun-control advocates could not get the bill through the Senate.
Obama's statement after the Roseburg shooting was the 15th time he had to respond to a mass shooting during his presidency, according to a count by CBS's Mark Knoller.
View Obama's full statement responding to the Planned Parenthood shooting below:
The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence — people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time.
And yet, two days after Thanksgiving, that's what we are forced to do again.
We don't yet know what this particular gunman's so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect. We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them.
This is not normal. We can't let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we 're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.
May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save — and may He grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing.
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