The Democratic National Committee released a video Sunday spotlighting Republican presidential candidates’ lack of support for gun control.
In an email sent out by the DNC press team, President Obama is highlighted for his “call to action” asking members of Congress to “do something to protect our children, families and communities from gun violence.”
“We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction,” Obama says in the clip, which splices parts of Obama’s address to the nation following the tragic shooting Thursday at an Oregon community college which left 10 dead with the positions of Republican presidential candidates.
“It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun,” Obama is seen saying from the James Brady Briefing Room in the White House.
The video then cuts to a MSNBC segment with Donald Trump on the phone saying, “We are always going to have problems,” in reaction to the shooting.
“When Americans are killed in mine disasters we work to make mines safer,” says Obama in the clip.
The video then shifts to a truncated clip where former Florida governor Jeb Bush speaks about the latest Oregon school shooting: “Stuff happens. There’s always a crisis. And the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
“When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes we make communities safer,” continues Obama in the video, before it cuts to a clip of Republican presidential candidate and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
“We are not going to handle it with more gun control,” Carson says, arms splayed out, before a crowd at a campaign stop.
The video then cuts back to Obama again, leaving out the part where Carson says “…because gun control only works for normal law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t work for crazies.”
The clip then shows Carly Fiorina suggesting that the issue of gun violence could be resolved by enforcing current laws, which is juxtaposed with Obama calling for a change in those laws.
“I can tell you … that I always find it interesting that the reflexive reaction on the Left is to say we need more gun laws,” says Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the next clip.
“I’ve got to have a Congress, and I’ve got to have state legislatures, and governors, that agree with me on this,” Obama says in the clip the video cuts to. “This is a political choice that we make. We collectively are answerable to those families, who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”
The new DNC video contrasts with the position of a popular Democrat presidential candidate, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said in an interview directly following the shooting, “You can sit there and say we should do this and do that, but you got a lot of states in this country where people want virtually no gun control at all. And if we are going to have some success we are going to have to start talking to each other.” Sanders added that he thinks the vast majority of Americans want “sensible gun control.”
