President Obama said Thursday that Americans need to “search ourselves” to find some way to limit access to guns, in the wake of another mass shooting that claimed 14 lives in California on Wednesday.
“We see the prevalence of these kinds of mass shootings in this country, and I think so many Americans sometimes feel as if there is nothing we can do about it,” Obama said in the White House.
But he said it’s not enough to rely on law enforcement to respond to shootings.
“I do think that as the investigation moves forward, it’s going to be important for all of us, including legislatures, to see what we can do to make sure that when individuals decide they want to do somebody harm, we’re making it a little harder for them to do it,” he said. “Because right now, it’s just too easy.”
“We’re going to have to, I think, search ourselves as a society to make sure that we can take basic steps that would make it harder, not impossible, but harder, for individuals to get access to weapons,” he said.
Police believe a Muslim man, Syed Farook, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, were responsible for firing into an office building in San Bernardino on Wednesday, an act that left 14 dead and 17 wounded. The two suspects were killed in a gunfight with police.
Police have not yet said they understand the motives behind the shooting, and said that while the attack seemed planned, it affected people Farook knew. As a result, it was not an attack on random people, such as the attack seen in Paris last month.
Obama said the FBI is investigating, and said at this point it’s unclear if it should be seen as an act of terrorism or workplace violence.
“It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know,” he said. “It’s also possible that this was workplace related.”
“There may be mixed motives involved in this, which makes the investigation more complicated,” he added. “But rest assured that we will get to the bottom of this.”
Obama also issued a proclamation in honor of those killed and wounded in the incident:
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