President Obama says U.S. gun laws are his 'greatest frustration'

President Obama.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

President Obama said on Thursday that the "greatest frustration" of his presidency has been his inability to pass "common sense gun safety laws."

In an interview with BBC News, Obama said he found it "distressing" not to have made progress on the issue "even in the face of repeated mass killings." Throughout his presidency, Obama has pushed for stricter gun control, but has been unable to significantly change the laws. "If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100," he said. "If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands. For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing." Watch a clip of Obama's interview below. Catherine Garcia

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.