Obama: ‘We Can Take Basic Steps that Would Make It Harder ... for Individuals to Get Access to Guns’

“As I said, yesterday, we see the prevalence of these kinds of mass shootings in this country. And I think so many Americans sometimes feel as if there’s nothing we can do about it. We are fortunate to have an extraordinary combination of law enforcement and intelligence and military that work every single day to keep us safe. But, we can’t just leave it to our professionals to deal with the problem of these kinds of horrible killings. We all have a part to play. And I do think that as the investigation moves forward, it’s going to be important for all of us, including our legislatures, to see what we can do to make sure that when individuals decide that they want to do somebody harm, we’ll make it a little harder for them to do it, because right now it’s just too easy. 

And you know, 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.

So, there will be, I think a press conference later today, led by the Attorney General, Director Comey will continue to brief, not only the press but also members of Congress, about the course of the investigation. Our expectation is that this may take some time before we’re able to sort it all through. There may be mixed motives involved in this, which makes the investigation more complicated. But, rest assured that we will get to the bottom of this and in the meantime, once again, I want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been — who have been affected by this terrible tragedy, and for those who have been injured. We hope that they get well quickly and that they’re able to be back together with their families.”