'This Has Become Routine': Obama Calls For Common Sense Gun Laws
Presidential candidates also react to deadly mass shooting at Oregon community college.
By Noreen ODonnell and Gabriella Iannetta ••
President Barack Obama spoke passionately and with frustration Thursday night after a gunman opened fire on a community college campus in Oregon, killing nine people.
"Somehow this has become routine," Obama said. "My response here, at this podium, is routine. We’ve become numb to this. It cannot be this easy for someone who wants to inflict pain on someone else to get their hands on guns.”
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Meriah Calvert, left, of Roseburg, Ore., and an unidentified woman pray by candles spelling out the initials for Umpqua Community College after a candlelight vigil Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in Roseburg, Oregon.
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Kristen Sterner, left, and Carrissa Welding, both students of Umpqua Community College, embrace each other during a candle light vigil for those killed during a fatal shooting at the college, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in Roseburg, Oregon.
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Governor Kate Brown of Oregon attends at a candlelight vigil for the victims of a shooting at Umpqua Community College October 1, 2015 in Roseburg, Oregon.
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Denizens of Roseburg gather at a candlelight vigil for the victims of a shooting October 1, 2015 in Roseburg, Oregon.
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A woman is comforted as friends and family wait for students at the local fairgrounds after a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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Hannah Miles, center, is reunited with her sister Hailey Miles, left, and father Gary Miles, right, after a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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President Barack Obama minced no words in denouncing the deaths as an example of yet another mass shooting that could have been prevented with "common-sense" gun regulation. "Somehow this has become routine," Obama said during an address Thursday evening, a few hours after the shooting. "The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, is routine. We've become numb to this."
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Vice President Joe Biden pauses while speaking at the fifth annual Concordia Summit Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in New York, while commenting on a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., that happened earlier in the day.
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Two woman wait outside Umpqua Community College campus after a shooting at the school in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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A student waits to walk off of the school bus at the local fairgrounds after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015. Multiple people were killed after a gunman opened fire at the campus early Thursday.
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Charles Porter, left, and Joseph Baldi, right, are reunited with Scott Leonard, center, after a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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At a press conference on Thursday, White House Press secretary Josh Earnest Earnest discussed the shooting and expressed frustration over U.S. gun control laws. "We've not yet seen that kind of strong bipartisan support across the country translate into legislative support in the United States Congress that's sufficient to pass legislation that would implement these kinds of common-sense solutions," Earnest said during the briefing.
Aaron Yost/Roseburg News-Review via AP
Paramedics return to their ambulances after delivering patients to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Ore., following a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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Police search students outside Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, following a deadly shooting at the southwestern Oregon community college.
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People wait for information at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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People gather at a road block near the entrance to Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, following a deadly shooting at the campus. (AP Photo/Ryan Kang)
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People wait for information at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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People wait for information at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
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Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
The president called upon Congress to implement what he called common sense gun control laws. He noted that critics would say that he had "politicized" the issue.
"This is something we should politicize— it is relevant to our common life together," he said.
The shooter, 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, also wounded at least nine others at the college in Roseburg, before dying himself.
Obama compared the United States to other advanced countries, saying that they changed their gun policies after only "one mass shooting." States with more gun control laws have less gun violence, he said.
Other countries also have people who are mentally ill, but the United States is the only developed country that sees shootings like the one in Oregon every month, the president said.
Obama added that "our thoughts and prayers are not enough."
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee criticized Obama in a statement on Facebook, saying that his "passion is grossly misplaced into destroying the Second Amendment" and that gun violence is "the fault of evil people doing evil things."
"With few facts, Obama is quick to admittedly politicize this tragedy to advance his liberal, anti-gun agenda," Huckabee wrote. "For this president to make a political pronouncement is at best premature and at worst ignorantly inflammatory."
Ohio governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich learned of the shootings during a taped interview with NBC News. He said that "stripping" citizens of their guns won't "get the job done" to prevent these tragedies.
"You can strip all the guns away, but the people who are going to commit crimes or have problems are always going to have the guns," Kasich said. Instead, he criticized the lack of treatment for the mentally ill in order to prevent shootings.
Earlier Thursday, other presidential candidates and politicians tweeted their thoughts and prayers for victims of the shooting.
Republicans Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham and Kasich and Democrats Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders were among those sending condolences.
Praying for Umpqua Community College, the victims, and families impacted by this senseless tragedy.
Many of the initial messages streered away from the politics of gun control but not all, including Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who challenged Republicans over gun safety.
