Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

World

Tearful Obama pleads for ‘urgency’ on gun control

US President Barack Obama gets emotional as he delivers a statement on executive actions to reduce gun violence on January 5, 2016 at the White House/AFP

US President Barack Obama gets emotional as he delivers a statement on executive actions to reduce gun violence on January 5, 2016 at the White House/AFP

WASHINGTON, United States, Jan 6 – President Barack Obama shed tears Tuesday as he announced limited measures to tackle rampant US gun violence and called on Americans to punish lawmakers who oppose more meaningful reforms.

Flanked by survivors of the gun violence that kills around 30,000 Americans every year, and relatives of those killed, Obama became emotional as he remembered 20 elementary school children shot dead three years ago in Newtown, Connecticut.

“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” the president said, struggling to collect himself. “So all of us need to demand a Congress brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby’s lies.”

In the face of Congressional opposition, Obama formally unveiled a handful of executive measures that will make it harder to buy and sell weapons, but which he admitted would not stop the scourge of mass shootings.

“We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence,” he said.

There are thought to be substantially more than 300 million guns in circulation in the United States, more than one per person.

Speaking in the East Room of the White House, Obama invoked the words of his hero, Martin Luther King, as he called for urgency in a generational struggle akin to the fight for women’s, African-American, or gay rights.

“We do have to feel a sense of urgency about it. In Dr. King’s words, we need to feel the fierce urgency of now, because people are dying,” he said. “And the constant excuses for inaction no longer do.”

“Yes, it will be hard. And it won’t happen overnight. It won’t happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency,” he said.

“But a lot of things don’t happen overnight. A woman’s right to vote didn’t happen overnight. The liberation of African-Americans didn’t happen overnight. LGBT rights, that was decades worth of work.”

About The Author

Pages: 1 2

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News