Pretoria - US President Barack Obama on Thursday slammed Congress and gun-rights lobby groups for obstructing reforms of gun control laws after an Oregon college campus shooting left 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 politicised this issue,'" said Obama in his 15th statement on mass shootings since taking office.
"This is something we should politicise. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."
Obama called on US gun owners "who are using those guns properly, safely" to start questioning whether the gun-rights lobby group represents their views.
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.
Ten people were killed and 20 more injured on 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 before having an exchange of fire with police.
Police say three hours later the lone shooter was dead on the scene. - SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
