--- title: Barack Obama in Tumblr Q&A: New Gun Restrictions 'Not Even Possible' description: The President blamed the U.S.'s high rate of mass shootings on a combination of mental illness and easy access to firearms canonical: https://time.com/2854043/obama-gun-laws/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-10T21:34:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:27.635Z article:section: Politics og:title: Barack Obama in Tumblr Q&A: New Gun Restrictions 'Not Even Possible' og:description: The President blamed the U.S.'s high rate of mass shootings on a combination of mental illness and easy access to firearms og:url: https://time.com/2854043/obama-gun-laws/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81d4a8146379086a/6986970a13c79fbf3919296b/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama speaks during an event on the bloging site Tumblr, in the State Dining Room on June 10, 2014 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack Obama in Tumblr Q&A: New Gun Restrictions 'Not Even Possible' twitter:description: The President blamed the U.S.'s high rate of mass shootings on a combination of mental illness and easy access to firearms twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81d4a8146379086a/6986970a13c79fbf3919296b/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama: New Gun Restrictions 'Not Even Possible' > 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=459f896a-e3b1-4c4a-9f84-3a5cfd810c8d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama on Guns: 'We Should Be Ashamed' [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama on Guns: 'We Should Be Ashamed'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/obuEC54k.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-06-10. President Obama takes to Tumblr in an event at the White House moderated by Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 10, 2014 9:34 PM UTC by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 10, 2014 9:34 PM UTC President Barack Obama conceded defeat Tuesday in his fight to pass new gun-control legislation. Eighteen months after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and hours after cable news was transfixed by [another school shooting](http://time.com/2853015/oregon-school-shooter-dead/) in Oregon on Tuesday morning, Obama said it was “stunning” that Congress couldn’t act to tighten access to weapons after the Newtown shooting. Obama, speaking to Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp during a live town hall hosted by the website, said such a move won’t be possible without a radical change in public opinion. “If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change,” Obama said. “Right now it’s not even possible to get even the mildest restrictions through Congress, and we should be ashamed of that.” An overwhelming majority of Americans support tightening background-check requirements after the Newtown shooting, but that was not enough to get a bipartisan bill through the Senate after vulnerable Democrats joined Republicans in blocking the legislation. Instead, the Obama Administration announced a series of narrow executive actions to try to act around Congress where it could. Lawmakers and candidates, Obama told Karp, are “terrified” by the National Rifle Association. Responding to arguments that the root cause of mass shootings is mental illness, Obama said, “The United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people.” “It’s not the only country that has psychosis, and yet we kill each other in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than anyplace else,” Obama continued, putting the blame on a combination of mental illness and easy access to firearms. “What’s the difference? The difference is these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses.” “We’re the only developed country on earth where this happens,” Obama lamented. “And it happens once a week. There’s no place else like this.” “Our levels of gun violence are off the charts,” he continued. “There’s no advanced, developed country on earth that would put up with this … The country has to do some soul searching about this.” ## Transcript My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to to keep guns out of the hands of you know, people who, you know, can can do just unbelievable damage. We're, we're the only society, we're the only developed country on Earth where this happens. And it, it happens now once a week. And it, it's a one day story. There's no place else like this. Couple of decades ago Australia had a mass shooting similar to Columbine or New Town. And Australia just said well, that's it. We're not doing, we're not seeing that again. And basically impose very severe tough gun laws and they haven't had a mass shooting since. I mean our levels of gun violence are off the charts. There's no advanced developed country on Earth that would put up with this. Now we have a, a different tradition. We have a second amendment. We have historically respected gun rights. I respect gun rights. But the idea that, for example, we couldn't even get a background check bill in. To make sure that if you're gonna buy a weapon, you have to actually go through a fairly rigorous process, so that we know who you are. So you can't just walk up to a store and buy a semi automatic weapon. it, it makes no sense. And, and I don't know if, if anybody saw the the, the brief press conference from the, the father of the young man who had been killed at Santa Barbara. And as a father myself I, I just could not understand the pain he must be going through. And, just the, the, the primal scream that, that he gave out. 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