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1st LD: Obama blasts Congress for not passing stricter gun control laws after Oregon college shooting

Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday slammed Congress for failing to pass stricter gun control laws after an Oregon college campus shooting left at least 10 people dead.

Lamenting that mass shootings had become "routine" in the United States, Obama said just as his televised condolence had become routine, so had reaction from politicians and opponents of stricter gun laws.

"Someone will comment and say, 'Obama politicized this issue,'" said Obama in his 15th statement on mass shootings since taking office. "This is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."

"We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction," Obama added.

Following the 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 28 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws.

The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups.

At least 10 people were killed and 20 more injured Thursday in a campus shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, southern Oregon, state police confirmed.

The gunman was said to be a 20-year-old male who started the carnage at the community college campus in rural Oregon before having an exchange of fire with police.

Sheriff John Hanlin of Douglas County told a news briefing about three hours later that the lone shooter was dead on the scene. Enditem