Watch Obama's increasingly angry responses to 6 years of U.S. mass shootings, in 4 minutes

Mourners hold a candlelight vigil in Roseburg, Oregon, after the murder of nine people at Umpqua Community College
(Image credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama became visibly frustrated and angry during his televised response to the shooting deaths of at least nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon — noting pointedly that he has had to do this before. The Washington Post counts at least a dozen times Obama has publicly responded to a mass shooting as president, and details them in an interactive timeline. The New York Times traced Obama's evolving reaction to mass shootings with a video collage. You can see the president's response shift after the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders in Newtown, Connecticut, where he visibly teared up during his speech. That massacre of kindergartners spurred his one big push to change America's gun laws. Republicans blocked that effort in Congress, and you can see that failure in Obama's post–Sandy Hook responses. Peter Weber

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
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.