In a room filled with gun violence survivors and family members of victims, President Obama made an emotional plea to stop the violence, calling it preventable.
The President explained, "The problem is some gun sellers have been operating under a different set of rules. A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the Internet with no background check, no questions asked."
This is true, but the keyword in Obama's statement is can. A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the Internet with no background check. All they have to do is buy the gun online from a non-licensed seller, who doesn't have to conduct a background check. Non-licensed sellers aren't necessarily operating illegally. Federal law doesn't require for private sellers who occasionally buy and sell guns for personal collections.
Then, the President shared the numbers, saying, "Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. 30,000. Suicides. Domestic violence. Gang shootouts. Accidents."
This is true, and the number Obama used may be even lower than the actual statistic. In 2013, there were 33,636 gun violence deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Obama mentioned, that figure does include suicides, which account for the majority of deaths.
Still, Obama says the levels of violence seen in the U.S. are unacceptable, noting, "The United States of America is not the only country on Earth with violent or dangerous people. We are not inherently more prone to violence. But we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency."
This is misleading. While the U.S. routinely has the most total shooting fatalities each year, our country also has the largest population. When you factor in total population, Norway, Finland, Slovakia, Israel, and Switzerland all top the U.S. as having the most gun fatalities per one million people.
The President will address the nation once again this Tuesday in his final State of the Union address. But he won't lay out another political policy. Obama aides say the President will instead discuss who should replace him and where the country should go from here. You can watch that address right here on WQAD, Tuesday night at 8 PM.