In op-ed, Obama demands 'leaders brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby's lies'

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last updated 8 January 2016

In a New York Times op-ed published Thursday, President Obama called the "epidemic of gun violence" in the United States a "crisis," and said it was time to "demand leaders brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby's lies."

Gun-related deaths and injuries "constitute one of the greatest threats to public health and to the safety of the American people," he wrote, and while it will be hard to reduce gun violence, "there are steps we can take now to save lives." As president, Obama used his legal authority to issue executive actions, and as a citizen, "I will not campaign for, vote for, or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform. And if the 90 percent of Americans who do support common-sense gun reforms join me, we will elect the leadership we deserve."

Gun owners "who feel that their views are not being properly represented" should stand up and "demand that leaders heed the voices of the people they are supposed to represent," he wrote, and gun manufacturers need to take "simple actions to make products safer as well. If a child can't open a bottle of aspirin, we should also make sure she can't pull the trigger of a gun." Read the entire op-ed at The New York Times.

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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.

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