Powerful Obama Speech on Mass Shootings: "Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough" 

Skip to navigation Skip to content Help using this website - Accessibility statement

Please enable JavaScript to use My News, My Clippings, My Comments and user settings.

Personalise your news, save articles to read later and customise settings

If you have trouble accessing our login form below, you can go to our login page.

Barack Obama says US gun laws must be changed, praises Australia again

View more articles from Nick O\'Malley

Zoom in on this story. Explore all there is to know.

Oregon shooting: Details emerge about gunman

Dutch politician copies our tough border message

Hurricane Joaquin could bring more rain for US

US President Obama says that gun laws in the US need to be changed following the latest mass shooting in Oregon, and praises Australia\'s laws.

Obama praises Australia\'s gun laws after Charleston

Washington: Yet again Barack Obama has fronted cameras at the White House, angry and sombre, following yet another mass killing - this time at a school in Oregon.

Yet again he has lamented the "routine" horror of mass killings, and yet again demanded Congress introduce gun regulations.

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the shooting at the community college in Oregon.

Again he has referred to Australia\'s success in reducing the number of gun deaths by reducing access to guns.

"We know that other countries in response to one mass shooting have managed to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings," he said.

"Friends of ours, allies of ours, Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours.

Police search students outside Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

"I hope and pray that I don\'t have to come out again in my tenure as President to offer my condolences to families under these circumstances. But based on my experience as President, I can\'t guarantee that," he told reporters in the White House briefing room.

The President also made reference, though not by name, to the National Rifle Association, the most powerful lobby in Washington, DC, which steadfastly opposes any proposals to limit access to guns.

Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after the deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Oregon.

"I would particularly ask America\'s gun owners, who are using those guns properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, or protecting their families, to think about whether your views are properly being represented by the organisation that suggests it\'s speaking for you," he said.

This appears to be a reference to research suggesting that even a majority of NRA members support universal background checks for people wishing to buy guns, a proposal the NRA lobbies against.

Anticipating the reaction his speech would provoke in some quarters, he said this was an issue that should be politicised.

Another mass shooting, this time in Oregon, has America asking questions again. 

"Someone will comment and say, \'Obama politicised this issue.\' Well, this is something we should politicise," he said. "It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."

Nodding to the arguments that such shootings are often committed by the mentally ill, Mr Obama said it was clear that anyone who committed such crimes had a "sickness in their minds".

"But we are not the only country on earth who has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people," he said.

"We are the only advanced country on earth who sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."

Mr Obama spoke mainly without notes, angrily anticipating the arguments that gun advocates would brandish following the shooting.

Mr Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden made a concerted push for broad gun control reforms after the school shooting of young children in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 that shocked the country. They were unsuccessful.

Mr Obama said he would continue to bring up the need for reform every time such a shooting took place, but the White House has made clear that it was unlikely to attempt another broad push on gun control through the Republican-led US Congress. 

Clarifications: Earlier reports from the US were that the gunman was aged 20 and had killed 13 people and injured 20.

Umpqua Community College massacre: Shooter opens ...

Barack Obama says US gun laws must be changed, ...

Oregon shooting: chilling message on 4chan warned ...

Family tells of grief after council covered ...

Australia\'s Possible Strategy Shift on Syria Is A Nod To Russia\'s Influence

Mass College Shooting In U.S. Leaves 13 Dead, Scores Injured

Witnesses say the 20-year-old male shooter demanded to know students\' religions before opening fire as the US President again calls for changes to the country\'s gun laws.

Dutch politician copies our tough border message"

Hurricane Joaquin could bring more rain for US"

What happened when I stopped complaining for two weeks

Earn 3 times the Velocity Points in first 3 months

$100 off a single Coles Supermarket shop. T&Cs apply

From $61/mth with over 200 options across 12 iPhone models

Oregon shooting: 274 days and 294 mass shootings in US this year

Oregon shooting: chilling message on 4chan warned of college massacre

Iran troops to join Syria war, Russia bombs group trained by CIA

Oregon shooting: Chris Harper Mercer named as Umpqua Community College gunman

Umpqua Community College massacre: Shooter opens fire at school in rural Oregon town

The horrific child rape case that is tearing Paraguay apart

Your gun laws are a mistake: National Rifle Association to Australia

Sinkhole in Britain: a crashing sound, then a huge hole in the ground

Most viewed articles on The Sydney Morning Herald