President Barack Obama flew to Roseburg, Oregon, one week after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College that took the lives of 10 people and injured nine others.
Obama met privately with the families of the victims of the shooting, which was the 45th shooting at a school in the U.S. this year.
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| President Barack Obama, Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich leave a meeting with the families of the Umpqua College shooting victims on October 9, 2015 in Roseburg, Oregon. |
Obama promised Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D), who appeared with him on Friday, he would do everything he could to help prevent other shootings from happening.
"I've obviously got very strong feelings about this," Obama said, according to a White House pool report.
"We're going to have to come together as a country, but today is about the families," Obama added.
Several gun-rights activists protested Obama's appearance by carrying signs and handguns along the road the president took to meet with family members.
After the Oregon shooting on Oct. 1, Obama expressed frustration with lawmakers for not taking action to strengthen gun laws, saying mass shootings have "become routine."
"We've become numb to this," Obama said in a statement given from the White House.
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| BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGES |
Obama has given statements on at least 15 mass shootings, including the UCC massacre, during his time in office. He has continually called for tighter gun control laws, something many Americans agree with. According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll, nearly half of Americans think laws governing the sale of handguns should be stricter, and a majority of Americans favor requiring a background check to be completed before all gun sales.
Read more at The Huffington Post
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