Powerless to act after yet another mass shooting, all the president of the United States could do was vent.
Barack Obama has clasped grieving parents close. His voice has broken as he’s read aloud the names of murdered kids. He’s wept in the White House briefing room. He’s raged at the gun lobby and failed to force Congress to pass new firearms control laws. And he’s delivered wake up call after wake up call to the nation, beseeching action.
But yet again, on Thursday, a sad, somber and angry Obama walked before the cameras to bemoan another community traumatized by a mass killing.
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This time it was at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, where a gunman went on the rampage earlier in the day and murdered at least 10 people – before being shot dead by police.
But, as fury flickered across a face shrouded by sad eyes, Obama seemed to be thinking of all the other times – of his speeches after massacres in Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and recently in Charleston, South Carolina. These moments, he’s admitted, have been among the most searing experiences of his presidency.
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“Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it … We have become numb to this,” he complained.
Obama’s remarks before hushed reporters was more than another emotional expression of impatience with a political system he believes has failed to permit even modest changes to gun laws, such as a ban on assault weapons or enhanced background checks. It was a cry of frustration at the nation itself and his failure to overcome the treacherous politics and well-worn arguments that surround Second Amendment issues.
He furiously predicted pro-gun organizations would crank out a press release calling for fewer gun control laws in the wake of the latest tragedy – as he delivered what CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller, the unofficial chronicler of White House life, says was his 15th address after a mass shooting.
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“What is also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say ‘Obama politicized this issue.’ Well this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic.”