"If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
Obama emphasized that gun violence was "not normal." "We can’t let it become normal," he stressed.
Three people — two civilians and one police officer — were killed and nine others were injured in a shooting after a gunman barricaded himself on Friday at a healthcare facility in Colorado Springs. He later surrendered to the police.
Colorado Spring police identified the attacker as Robert Dear, 57. The motive for the assault on the clinic, which is run by a non-profit group and known to perform abortions, remains unclear, according to Obama.
The suspect had been seen carrying bags into the building before the attack, prompting police to search the clinic for hidden explosives. The CSPD confirmed in a Twitter posting that "the items brought to the scene by suspect have been secured and processed items no longer a threat."
Fatal shootings have been frequent in the United States in the past year. Earlier today, police charged a 15-year-old boy with murdering a 25-year-old man in a shooting attack in the US city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
President Barack Obama has previously called on Congress to change the country’s gun laws, and urged the US citizens to pay more attention to presidential candidates’ positions on gun control.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms. Additionally, opponents of the proposed measures claim there are enough laws on the books regulating gun purchases.
