--- title: Oregon Shooting: Full Text of President Obama's Statement description: The President spoke passionately from the Press Briefing room on Thursday canonical: https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-02T00:57:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:32:12.022Z article:section: Politics og:title: Transcript: Full Text of Obama's Oregon Shooting Statement og:description: "There’s been another mass shooting in America" og:url: https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5add4c733f5f57b2/6988669fbc6cfc150b3d9b9a/obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Obama Speaks On The Mass Shooting At Community College In Oregon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Transcript: Full Text of Obama's Oregon Shooting Statement twitter:description: "There’s been another mass shooting in America" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5add4c733f5f57b2/6988669fbc6cfc150b3d9b9a/obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Transcript: Read the Full Text of Obama's Statement on the Shooting in Oregon > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=46bcbd42-e6e8-43be-a0bd-9d7a854199d8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama's Speech on Oregon Shooting [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama's Speech on Oregon Shooting](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hj2CwH6d.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2015-10-02. "Somehow this has become routine"_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 2, 2015 12:57 AM UTC "Somehow this has become routine" by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 2, 2015 12:57 AM UTC President Obama [spoke](http://time.com/4058841/obama-mass-shootings/) from the podium of the James Brady Press Briefing room on Thursday evening in the wake of the [mass shooting](http://time.com/4058269/oregon-shooting-community-college/) at Umpqua Community College. --- > “” --- ## Transcript Somehow, this has become routine. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The reporting is routine, my response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation, in the aftermath of it, we've become Numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine, and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict Ham on other people to get his or her hands on a gun. As I said just a few months ago and I said a few months before that and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. [ SOUND ] It's not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America. We are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses, or want to do harm to people. We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months. Each time this happens, I am going to say that we can actually do something about it, but we're gonna have to change our laws. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress and I've gotta have state legislatures And governors who are willing to work with me on this. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/"},"headline":"Transcript: Read the Full Text of Obama's Statement on the Shooting in Oregon","datePublished":"2015-10-02T00:57:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:32:12.022Z","description":"The President spoke passionately from the Press Briefing room on Thursday","url":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/","keywords":["Crime","Obama","shooting","President Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5add4c733f5f57b2/6988669fbc6cfc150b3d9b9a/obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5add4c733f5f57b2/6988669fbc6cfc150b3d9b9a/obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Speaks On The Mass Shooting At Community College In Oregon","caption":"President Obama Speaks On The Mass Shooting At Community College In Oregon","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/","name":"Transcript: Read the Full Text of Obama's Statement on the Shooting in Oregon"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama's Speech on Oregon Shooting","description":"\"Somehow this has become routine\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Hj2CwH6d/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-02T12:59:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hj2CwH6d.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/","duration":"PT2M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4058961/oregon-shooting-president-obama-transcript-speech/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```