Obama calls for tougher gun laws after California shootings

President Barack Obama edged closer Saturday to declaring the shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people a terrorist attack, but stuck to his prescription that the answer to preventing such tragedies was gun limits.

“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalised to commit this act of terror,” Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address, broadcast a day after the FBI declared that it was treating the massacre as an act of terror.

“And if so, it would underscore a threat we’ve been focused on for years - the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies.”

Mr Obama noted that investigators must be allowed to complete their work. But he specifically cited the efforts of the Islamic State, also known as Isis and Isil, to inspire people in Europe and the United States to stage terror attacks.

“We know that Isil and other terrorist groups are actively encouraging people around the world and in our country to commit terrible acts of violence, oftentimes as lone-wolf actors,” the president said.

“And even as we work to prevent attacks, all of us- government, law enforcement, communities, faith leaders- need to work together to prevent people from falling victim to these hateful ideologies.”

Whatever their motives, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the husband and wife who the authorities say walked into a conference centre and killed 14 people, had military-style firearms, Mr Obama noted.

“We know that the killers in San Bernardino used military-style assault weapons - weapons of war - to kill as many people as they could,” he said.

Mr Obama repeated his administration's insistence that Congress pass a law forbidding those on the government's no-fly list from being able to buy a gun, a measure that was voted down in the Senate on Thursday 54-45.

“Right now, people on the no-fly list can walk into a store and buy a gun. That is insane,” Mr Obama said.

“If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun. And so I’m calling on Congress to close this loophole, now. We may not be able to prevent every tragedy, but - at a bare minimum - we shouldn’t be making it so easy for potential terrorists or criminals to get their hands on a gun that they could use against Americans.”

NYT