Gun Control Advocates Must Beat 'Cowardly Politicians' After Colorado Shooting - Obama

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2021) Advocates of gun control and background checks on buyers of weapons must overcome the opposition of "cowardly politicians" fearful of the National Rifle Association to push through needed reforms, former US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday after the killing of ten people in a Colorado supermarket.

"We can overcome opposition by cowardly politicians and the pressure of a gun lobby that opposes any limit on the ability of anyone to assemble an arsenal," Obama said in a statement. "We can, and we must."

Ten people were killed at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, about 25 miles (40 km) from Denver. Eric Talley, a 51-year-old police officer who was first to run to the aid of the victims, was among the dead. A 21-year-old male suspect later identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was captured alive.

"We should be able to go to school, or go out with our friends, or worship together without mentally planning our escape if someone shows up with a gun. We should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside our home could be our last. We should. But in America, we can't," Obama said.

As president, Obama failed to enact any significant gun control reform despite having control of the Senate and House of Representatives by his own Democratic Party during his first two years in office. The latest massacre came only one week after another individual shot dead eight people, six of them Asian women in massage parlors in the Atlanta area.