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)

published 2 October 2015

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

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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.

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