Days before Orlando shooting, Obama warned how known ISIS sympathizers could purchase guns

Days before the Orlando shooting, President Obama warned that ISIS sympathizers living in the U.S. had the ability to purchase guns. — (Image credit: YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Just 10 days before a gunman pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and opened fire on an Orlando nightclub, President Obama warned that known ISIS sympathizers could get their hands on firearms.

Speaking at a NewsHour-hosted town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, on June 1, Obama addressed the topic in response to gun shop owner Doug Rhude's challenge to his gun control record:

"I just have to say, respectfully, that there is a way for us to have common-sense gun laws. There is a way for us to make sure that lawful, responsible gun owners like yourself are able to use them for sporting, hunting, protecting yourself, but the only way we're going to do that is if we don't have a situation in which anything that is proposed is viewed as some tyrannical destruction of the Second Amendment," Obama went on. "And that's how the issue too often gets framed."

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Hillary Clinton has called for an assault weapons ban following the Orlando massacre, while Donald Trump said he "absolutely won't" pursue such reforms.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.