Obama discussed the challenges of reducing gun violence and how gun ownership has become an “ideological” and “partisan” issue during an exclusive sit-down interview with “CBS Mornings” co-host Nate Burleson. The full interview will air on Tuesday, May 16.
“I think somehow — and there are a lot of historical reasons for this — gun ownership in this country became an ideological issue, and a partisan issue, in ways that it shouldn’t be,” Obama told Burleson. “It has become sort of a proxy for arguments about our culture wars, you know? Urban versus rural. Race is always an element in these issues. Issues of class and education, and so forth.” …
The Obama Foundation on Wednesday announced an initiative — titled My Brother’s Keeper, or MBK — to help young men of color and their communities “remain safe from violent crime.” The program will provide coaching, educational opportunities, financial resources and more. …
During his presidency, Obama called for stricter gun laws and urged Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban following the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, which killed 49 people and wounded dozens more.
“Instead of just taking a very practical approach, like we do, let’s say, for example, with car safety, where we say, ‘All right, we got a bunch of accidents. Let’s have seat belts. And let’s make cars safer. And let’s engineer our roads so that we prevent them,’” Obama observed, “Instead of thinking about it in a very pragmatic way, we end up really arguing about identity, and emotion, and all kinds of stuff that does not have to do with keeping our children safe.”
— Leo Rocha in Obama on the View of Gun Ownership in America