Hours after at least 14 people were killed in a mass shooting in San San Bernardino, California, President Barack Obama reacted to the murders by saying laws must be changed to prevent future deaths.
“We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” he said in an interview with CBS.
Three suspects fled the Wednesday rampage. Local and federal police are on the scene but said they don’t know the motive or have suspects for the incident.
Obama said Americans should never think mass shootings are “normal” and offered legislative changes to “improve the odds” against future shootings.
“Common sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks, and for those who are concerned about terrorism, some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can’t get on planes but those same people who we don’t allow to fly can go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm and there’s nothing we can do to stop them,” he said. “That’s a law that needs to change.”
Obama said Americans should come together “on a bipartisan basis on every level of government to make these rare as opposed to normal.”
“We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events because it doesn’t happen with the same frequency in other countries.”
Screenshot via CBS