In his address to the nation following the latest school shooting, President Obama seemed at a loss.
Earlier today, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, killing 10 and injuring more than 20 others.
His statement was delivered almost as though he couldn’t believe this was happening again. There was a sense of disbelief in his voice.
“Our prayers are not enough.”
This keeps happening.
The problem can’t be pinned on the mental health of the shooter. Mental illness is not restricted to the U.S.
A common scapegoat for mass shootings are mentally ill individuals. It’s easy to pin the problem on the mentally ill because it’s hard to imagine someone in their right mind carrying out a mass shooting. But nearly 20% of the U.S. population has some form of mental illness.
And people living with mental illness are actually more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.
These shootings have become so routine. So, so routine.
Obama said it himself. It’s what we were all thinking when we heard the news. “Somehow, this has become routine.”
The Onion published a piece satirizing the U.S.’s unwillingness to take action on gun violence. It’s become one of their most frequently relevant pieces of content, it seems.
Obama breaks from the traditional script here and points, incredulously, to the certain response from those who oppose any sort of gun reform.
He concluded the speech with a call for Congress to take action, but his tone remained filled with doubt and frustration.
How many more shootings will we as a country have to endure before some sort of action is taken? At what point does the message get through?
Watch President Obama’s full remarks below.
