President Barack Obama blamed public apathy combined with the tight “grip” on Congress of the National Rifle Association, the powerful US gun lobby, for blocking stricter gun laws.
Speaking during an interview recorded on Friday, just two days after the mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina, Obama said he did not foresee any quick changes to gun laws.
“Unfortunately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong,” Obama said in a clip of the interview with “WTF with Marc Maron” posted by the New York Times.
It was not the first time Obama has railed against the NRA. After the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre in 2012, a tragedy that Obama has called his toughest time in office, he pushed for changes to gun laws.
He proposed more background checks for gun sales and pushed to ban more types of military-style assault weapons and limit the capacity of ammunition magazines.
But he failed to convince enough lawmakers to support the restrictions.
“I don`t foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress. And I don`t foresee any real action being taken until the American public feels a sufficient sense of urgency and they say to themselves, `This is not normal, this is something that we can change, and we`re going to change it,`” he said in the interview with Maron.
