Obama Urges National Gun Reform — Senate Needs to Quell ‘Easy Access to Guns’

Former President Obama said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview that aired on Tuesday that the U.S. Senate needs to “stop the easy access and flood of guns” into inner-city communities like his hometown of Chicago.

Obama said, “Violent crime and violence generally in low-income communities, inner-city communities in America is nothing new. We have sort of a sporadic — every once in a while, we will focus on it, and then our attention drifts away. The constant is young people, mostly young men, who have not gotten a good education, don’t have a good opportunity, are not seeing good role models, are living in neighborhoods that are frayed and fractured. The second common denominator here in the United States is gun violence, easy access to guns. Now Chicago alone can’t solve the gun problem. As you are well aware during my presidency — talk about something I wanted to get done that I couldn’t get done — was get common-sense gun safety measures in place and though Congress.”

He added, “Chicago alone can’t stop the easy access and flood of guns into these communities. But what we can do is potentially give young people the sense that there’s another way for them to empower themselves, other than wielding a gun. I think it’s going to be important for our Senate to be part of that solution.”

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