President Barack Obama has admitted on record that his failure to pass ‘common sense gun safety laws’ in the United States has been the ‘greatest frustration’ of his presidency.
President Obama said that it was ‘distressing’ not to have made any progress on the issue ‘even in the face of repeated mass killings’.
He pointed out that the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism was less than 100 but those killed by gun violence was ‘tens of thousands’.
He added that gun control was the area that had been ‘most frustrated and most stymied’ since he assumed power in 2009.
President Obama has been pushing for stricter gun laws throughout his presidency but has been unable to secure any significant changes to the law.
After nine African-Americans were killed by a white gunman in a church in South Carolina last month, the president had admitted that ‘politics in the town’ meant there were few options available.
With just 18 months left in power, President Obama has vowed to keep trying.
Shortly after the interview, yet another gun attack took place in the U.S. state of Louisiana as a gunman opened fire inside a theatre, killing two people and injuring seven others before shooting himself dead.
