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
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
-
Political cartoons for October 20Cartoons Monday’s political cartoons include a $40 billion bailout for Argentina, Prince Andrew's titles, chaos at the CDC, and more
-
From Da Vinci to a golden toilet: a history of museum heistsIn the Spotlight Following the ‘spectacular’ events at the Louvre, museums are ‘increasingly being targeted by criminal gangs’
-
Can Gen Z uprisings succeed where other protest movements failed?Today's Big Question Apolitical and leaderless, youth-led protests have real power but are vulnerable to the strongman opportunist
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
Colleges are being overwhelmed with active shooter hoaxesIn the Spotlight More than a dozen colleges have reported active shooter prank calls
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
