Obama discusses how gun ownership has become a partisan issue

Former president Barack Obama He asserted that gun ownership has become “an ideological … and partisan issue” and declared that Americans discuss issues that “have nothing to do with keeping our children safe.”

“I think that somehow, and there are many historical reasons for this, gun ownership in this country became an ideological and partisan issue in ways that it shouldn’t be,” Obama said.

“It’s kind of become a proxy for arguments about our culture wars, you know? Urban versus rural. Race is always an element in these themes. Questions of class and education, etcetera, ”he added.

Obama’s comments were shared as the US had recorded 216 mass shootings in the country in 2023 as of Sunday morning. according to the File of Armed Violence. There have been 15,544 deaths due to gun violence in the US so far this year and 12,447 injuries.

In the “CBS Mornings” interview, Obama went on to distinguish the issue of gun violence in the United States from other “very practical” approaches to the issues the country is taking on.

“Like we do, let’s say, for example, with car safety, where we say, ‘Okay, we’ve got a bunch of accidents.’ Let’s have seat belts and make cars safer and design our roads to prevent them,’” Obama observed.

“Instead of thinking about it in a very pragmatic way, we ended up discussing identity and emotions and all sorts of things that don’t have to do with keeping our kids safe.”