White House calls for tougher gun laws following Oregon shooting
US President Barack Obama is still pushing Congress to pass tougher laws to help prevent gun violence in the country, the White House says, following a deadly shooting at a college campus in the state of Oregon.
At least 10 people were killed and 7 injured in a shooting at the Umpqua Community College on Thursday morning. Earlier reports, however, had put the number of people dead and wounded much higher. According to reports, the 20-year-old suspect was killed by police.
“The issue of sensible steps that can be taken to protect our communities from gun violence continues to be a top priority of this administration,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday.
US Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco briefed Obama on the shooting and the president will receive updates throughout the day, according to reports.
Earnest said the “vast majority of Americans” support stricter gun laws, but he added that the president is “realistic” about the prospects of the Republican-dominated Congress taking action on gun control.
“The president has been quite candid about how this is and has been a source of frustration for him,” he said.
“It has at all not been lowered at all on the priority scale, but at the same time the president is realistic that we’ll need to see a fundamental change” about how the public presses for action.
Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States. The US averages 87 gun deaths each day as a function of gun violence, with an average of 183 injured, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control.
About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the United States at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.
On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were fatally shot by a gunman -- who later killed himself -- at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town of Newtown in the US state of Connecticut.
Following the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama pushed for gun reform, including expanded background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines, but the powerful gun rights lobby and its people in Congress fiercely opposed the measure.
Obama has said the “biggest frustration” of his time in the office has been the inability to reduce unparalleled levels of gun violence in the country.
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