A White House spokesman admitted Thursday that President Obama has extremely low expectations it comes to the possibility of stricter gun laws, and said that issue is largely up to a Congress that has shown no appetite for the issue.
“I don’t think the president is anticipating Congress moving on this anytime soon,” spokesman Eric Schultz said from Air Force One. Schultz talked to reporters shortly after Obama spoke at the White House about the apparently racially motivated massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., before heading to California.
“We’re very realistic about the political realities,” he said.
Schultz said that Obama dove into the issue in 2013 and did everything within his power, including taking 23 executive actions that included steps to encourage safe ownership of guns. Those efforts took place after a shooting in Newtown, Conn. claimed the lives of 20 children, but they didn’t come close to the tough, new gun control laws that many Democrats want.
“[T]he president worked very hard to exhaust every possible avenue to tackle this issue,” Schultz said. “We didn’t leave anything in the cupboard on steps that we could take to address this.”
But Obama “was also very clear that the biggest, boldest action would have to be taken by Congress,” he continued. “We commenced a significant lobbying campaign to Congress, and we fell short; Congress fell short.”
“But that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a moment for Americans to realize the urgency of this issue and acknowledge it,” Schultz said, echoing Obama.
Obama spoke from the White House on Thursday afternoon, and said Americans must acknowledge that gun violence is a unique problem for America that needs to be solved somehow.
“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Obama said. “I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it.
“And at some point it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively,” Obama said.
In a separate statement after Obama spoke, Vice President Joe Biden, who was at Obama’s side during his remarks, also called on Americans to make gun control a priority issue.
“But as a nation we must confront the ravages of gun violence and the stain of hatred that continues to be visited on our streets, in our schools, in our houses of worship, and in our communities,” Biden stated.
