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A grim-faced an emotional President Obama spoke out Thursday after the massacre at an Oregon college -- lamenting that mass killings have become routine in the United States and blasting those who oppose tougher gun laws.

I hope and pray that I dont have to come out again in my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families under these circumstances. But based on my experience as president, I cant guarantee that, Obama said in the White House briefing room.

The shooting, which left at least 20 people dead and injured, according to the governor's office, took place Thursday morning at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Officials did not confirm how many people died, but ABC News affiliate KATU said that at least 7 had been killed.

The identity of the 20-year-old shooter has not been released.

The president said that just as his remarks on shootings have become routine, so too have the reactions from politicians and opponents of stricter gun regulations.

Someone will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize," he said. "It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."

Rather than shying away from the political dimension to mass shootings, the president leaned in to it, saying that Thursdays events were direct products of political decisions - those made by lawmakers and by those who elect them.

We collectively are answerable to those families, who lose their loved ones because of our inaction, he said.

In a veiled reference to groups who have opposed the presidents efforts to tighten gun purchasing laws, he urged firearms owners to reconsider their affiliations.

I would particularly ask Americas gun owners, who are using those guns properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, or protecting their families, to think about whether your views are properly being represented by the organization that suggests its speaking for you, he said.

The president has said the failure to pass more stringent gun safety laws is one of the greatest frustrations of his presidency thus far.

"If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which, we do not have sufficient common-sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings," he told the BBC in July.

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President Obama Laments Mass Shootings Becoming 'Routine ...

NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama on Friday criticized Russia's recent airstrikes over the Syrian city of Homs as a dead-end strategy that will ultimately empower the Islamic State militant group.

Speaking from the White House, Obama accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of failing to differentiate between Islamic State extremists and moderate groups who oppose the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Thats a recipe for disaster. And one that I reject," said Obama, adding that Russia's targeting of moderate opposition groups will encourage foreign fighters to join the conflict and draw the Russians into a quagmire. The Russian bombing of Homs, which is controlled by anti-Assad forces, targeted the Free Syrian Army, an opposition group that has received training from the U.S. to fight the Islamic State.

The remarks are the president's first foray into the escalating battle of rhetoric about the Syrian civil war that has pitted the U.S. and its allies against the Assad regime and one of its key backers, Russia.

Despite his criticism of Russia's intervention, Obama reiterated his willingness to work with Russia and Iran, the other major backer of the Assad regime, to negotiate the Syrian dictator's transition out of power.

Shortly before Obamas remarks, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem took the U.N. General Assembly stage in New York andthanked Russia for its effective participation in the support of the Syrian efforts in combating terrorism." He framed the Assad regimes war against its people as a noble effort to quell terrorism -- a message similar to the one Putinconveyed on the same stageearlier in the week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that the strikes do not go beyond ISIL, [Jabhat] al-Nusra or other terrorist groups recognized by the United Nations Security Council or Russian law. The Islamic State is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

However, the Pentagon has confirmed that the area hit by Russia is not an ISIS stronghold.Earlier this week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest questioned Russia's claim that the airstrikes were intended to fight terrorism.

The Syrian National Coalition, which represents the FSA and several other opposition groups, told reporters earlier this week that all 36 people killed by Russias airstrikes were civilians. They are there to uphold a regime that lost its legitimacy, that only controls 14 percent of the land in Syria, Dr. Najib Ghadbian, the groups U.S. representative. said at the U.N. Wednesday. That was proven today.

Earlier on Friday, the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey issued a joint statement calling on Russia to narrow its airstrikes to strictly target ISIS fighters. (Notably absent from the list of signatories were Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, two of the U.S.' main allies in the bombing campaign against ISIS.)

While Russian and American defense officials have met to discuss ways to avoid accidental confrontations in an increasingly crowded Syrian airspace, it is unlikely the Russians will heed the targeting advice.

Lavrov pointed out to reporters on Thursday that the U.S. operation against relies on a 2001 war authorization that allows for the use of force against al-Qaeda and affiliated forces. In the absence of a new congressional authorization of force, the Obama administration has said the 2001 mandate allows it to target ISIS and al-Nusra in Syria, arguing that those groups are offshoots of al-Qaeda.

In response to a question about who -- in addition to ISIS -- the Russians see as legitimate targets in Syria, Lavrov said, If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist."

Continued here:
Obama Accuses Russia Of Strengthening ISIS

TO HEAR Vladimir Putin, Russia has become the leader of a new global war on terrorism. By contrast Barack Obama seems wearier by the day with the wars in the Muslim world that America has been fighting for more than a decade. On September 30th Russian jets went into action to support Bashar al-Assads beleaguered troops. It is setting up an intelligence-sharing network with Iraq and Iran. The Russian Orthodox church talks of holy war. Mr Putins claim to be fighting Islamic State (IS) is questionable at best. The evidence of Russias first day of bombing is that it attacked other Sunni rebels, including some supported by America. Even if this is little more than political theatre, Russia is making its biggest move in the Middle East, hitherto Americas domain, since the Soviet Union was evicted in the 1970s.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, Americas campaign against the Taliban has suffered a blow. On September 28th Taliban rebels captured the northern town of Kunduzthe first provincial capital to fall to them since they were evicted from power in 2001. Afghan troops retook the centre three days later. But even if they establish full control, the attack was a humiliation.

Both Kunduz and Russias bombing are symptoms of the same phenomenon: the vacuum created by Barack Obamas attempt to stand back from the wars of the Muslim world. Americas president told the UN General Assembly this week that his country had learned it cannot by itself impose stability on a foreign land; others, Iran and Russia included, should help in Syria. Mr Obama is not entirely wrong. But his proposition hides many dangers: that America throws up its hands; that regional powers, sensing American disengagement, will be sucked into a free-for-all; and that Russias intervention will make a bloody war bloodier still. Unless Mr Obama changes course, expect more deaths, refugees and extremism.

Having seen the mess that George W. Bush made of his war on terror, especially in Iraq, Mr Obama is understandably wary. American intervention can indeed make a bad situation worse, as odious leaders are replaced by chaos and endless war saps Americas strength and standing. But Americas absence can make things even more grim. At some point, extremism will fester and force the superpower to intervene anyway.

That is the story in the Middle East. In Iraq Mr Obama withdrew troops in 2011. In Syria he did not act to stop Mr Assad from wholesale killing, even after he used poison gas. But when IS jihadists emerged from the chaos, declared a caliphate in swathes of Iraq and Syria, and began to cut off the heads of their Western prisoners, Mr Obama felt obliged to step back indesultorily. In Afghanistan Mr Obama is making the same mistake of premature withdrawal. As NATOs combat operations wound down into a mission to train, advise and assist, Mr Obama promised that the last American troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of 2016. The date had no bearing on conditions in Afghanistan but everything to do with when Mr Obama leaves the White House.

What can Mr Obama do? In Afghanistan, rather than pull out the 9,800 remaining American troops, he should reinforce them and make clear that he puts no date on their withdrawal. The rules of engagement must expand so that NATO forces can back Afghan ones. Attack aircraft should support them as needed, not just in extremis. He needs to knock heads together in Kabul, where the unity government forged last year between President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, is dysfunctional enough to lack a defence minister. This was Mr Obamas good war: he risks losing it.

In Syria Mr Obamas dithering means his options continually grow harder and riskier. Mr Putin is unabashedly defending a tyrant and deepening the regions Sunni-Shia divide. America must hold the line that Mr Assad will not remain in power, and set out a vision for what should follow. It needs to do more to protect the mainly Sunni population: create protected havens; impose no-fly zones to stop Mr Assads barrel-bombs; and promote a moderate Sunni force. That may well mean staring down Russian jets.

As a judoka, Mr Putin knows the art of exploiting an opponents weakness: when America steps back, he pushes forward. Yet being an opportunist does not equip him to fix Syria. And the more he tries to save Mr Assad the more damage he will cause in Syria and the regionand the greater the risk that his moment of bravado will turn to hubris. Given the enduring strength of America, there is much that it can still do to contain the spreading disorderif only Mr Obama had a bit more of Mr Putins taste for daring.

More here:
Putin dares, Obama dithers | The Economist

President Barack Obama delivered a strong call for gun control in the aftermath of the deadly Oregon shooting Thursday, saying from the White House that thoughts and prayers for the families are not enough.

Theres been another mass shooting in America, the president said at the outset of his remarks. This time at a community college in Oregon.

In the coming days we will learn about the victims. The young men and women who were studying and learning and working hard, their eyes set on the future, their dreams, on what they could make of their lives. AndAmerica will wrap everyone who is grieving with our prayers and our love.

Image source: Screen grab via YouTube

Obama then turned to the issue of gun control.

As I said just a few months ago our thoughts and prayers are not enough, he said. Its not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted some place else in America.

This is something we should politicize, Obama added.

Obama contended that the notion that gun laws dont work is not borne out by the evidence. He argued that the frequency of mass shootings can be reduced and said it is merely a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months.

Obama said the problem is not something that I can do by myself, noting he would need the help of Congress, governors and state legislators.

The president issued a plea to gun owners, asking them to rethink their support for organizations like the National Rifle Association.

I would particularly ask Americas gun owners, who are using those guns properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families, to think about whether your views are properly being represented by the organization that suggests its speaking for you, he said.

May God bless the memories of those who were killed today. May He bring comfort to their families and courage to the injured as they fight their way back. And may He give us the strength to come together and find the courage to change.

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In the absence of that, he warned that Russia's air campaign against Syria would only lead to further bloodshed for the war-torn country and bog down Moscow.

Russia, he predicted during a White House press conference, would get stuck in a "quagmire," adding, "It just won't work, and they're going to stay there for a while."

Saying Syria's civil war doesn't directly involve the United States -- but instead pits Assad's forces against rebel groups -- Obama admitted elements of his strategy had failed. A plan to train and equip opposition forces, which resulted in only a handful of trainees, "did not work the way it was supposed to," Obama said.

But asked whether he now backs no-fly zones in Syria -- which his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, recommended this week during her presidential campaign -- he warned against "easy, low-cost answers" to ending the war.

Asked to respond directly to her suggestion, he said that one's perspective changes when president.

"I think Hillary Clinton would be the first to say that when you're sitting in the seat that I'm sitting in in the situation room, things look a little bit different. Because she's been right there next to me," he said.

He also said, "I also think there's a difference between running for president and being president."

Instead, Obama insisted that the only solution was diplomatic, raising the possibility of a brokered deal to remove Assad from power.

READ: Vladimir Putin steals Barack Obama's thunder on the world stage

Obama's comments come after a scramble by his administration to respond to Russia's strikes, which began two days after the President met Putin at the United Nations.

Obama's aides emerged from that meeting confident Putin was committed to defeating ISIS in Syria. But after the airstrikes began, the U.S. said Russian planes were instead targeting areas held by rebel forces opposed to Assad rather than ISIS terrorists.

Obama said Friday he didn't think anyone was "fooled" by Putin's strategy in Syria, which he said amounted to supporting Russia's sole "client state in the Middle East."

He said that during his meeting with Putin, he underscored the importance of transitioning Assad from power.

In a joint statement Friday, the governments of nations fighting ISIS -- including the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia -- said Russia's military strikes "constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalization."

The joint statement, using another acronym for ISIS, called on Russia to "to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL."

But Putin has showed little sign he's ready to end his military campaign in Syria. Russia is one of Assad's last remaining global backers, and the White House says Putin is looking to prop up Assad's regime as it appears to falter.

Russia's final remaining military base outside the former Soviet Union in positioned on Syria's coast, lending further urgency to Putin's desire to bolster Assad.

CNN's Theodore Schleifer contributed to this report.

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Obama: Russia heading for 'quagmire' in Syria