President Obama recently used Twitter to suggest that it is time for federal gun legislation to be passed. This comes right after a gunman shot 9 black members who were at a Bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina.
Using his @POTUS account, Obama said, “Here are the stats: Per population, we kill each other with guns at a rate 297x more than Japan, 49x more than France, 33x more than Israel.”
In addition, the President also tweeted a followup message: “Expressions of sympathy aren’t enough. It’s time we do something about this.”
Given that this tweet was added on Saturday, it was by Sunday afternoon that the first tweet was retweeted and favorited 35 thousand and 31 thousand times. As for the second, the numbers were 21 thousand retweets and 28 thousand favorites.
Obama is said to have made 14 statements after mass shootings during this time as President. Some of the shootings included the one in Aurora as well as the Sandy Hook Elementary School. After the latter, efforts to bring about the ban of assault weapons and high capacity magazines as well as the expansion of background checks for purchasers failed in the Senate.
After each shooting, Obama has repeatedly reminded the people for the need of common sense legislation but for which more Americans would be alive today. He also acknowledged that this type of violence does not take place in other countries and it’s time to realise that something can be done about it.
While Hillary Clinton agreed with the President, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum suggested that gun control wasn’t the answer.