President Barack Obama has admitted
that his failure to pass "common sense gun safety laws" in the US is the
greatest frustration of his presidency.
In an interview with the
BBC, Mr Obama said it was "distressing" not to have made progress on
the issue "even in the face of repeated mass killings".
He vowed to keep trying, but the BBC's North America editor Jon Sopel said the president did not sound very confident.
However, Mr Obama said race relations had improved during his presidency.
In a wide-ranging interview, President Obama also said:
The UK must stay in the EU to have influence on the world stage
He is confident the Iran nuclear deal will be passed by Congress
Syria needs a political solution in order to defeat the Islamic State group
Despite racial tensions, the US is becoming more diverse and more tolerant
But with just 18 months left in power, he said gun control was
the area where he has been "most frustrated and most stymied" since
coming to power in 2009.
"If you look at the number of Americans
killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the
number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of
thousands," Mr Obama said. Obama urges UK to stay in the EU
The president said he would continue fighting for greater gun control laws
"For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing," he added.
Mr
Obama has pushed for stricter gun control throughout his presidency but
has been unable to secure any significant changes to the laws.
After
nine African-American churchgoers were killed in South Carolina in
June, he admitted "politics in this town" meant there were few options
available.
Analysis: Jon Sopel, BBC News, Washington
President
Obama seemed very confident and very relaxed, as if he felt things were
starting to go his way after some people had written off his
presidency.
After the midterm elections, Mr Obama looked as if he
was walking around with a very heavy weight on his back, feeling very
frustrated.
But since then he's had the diplomatic deal with
Cuba, the nuclear agreement with Iran, an Asian trade deal and several
other successes.
Suddenly, he has a spring in his step. He feels
like he's achieving quite a lot at the moment and he still has ambitions
to achieve an awful lot more.
On
race relations, Mr Obama said recent concerns around policing and mass
incarcerations were "legitimate and deserve intense attention" but
insisted progress had been made.
Children growing up during the
eight years of his presidency "will have a different view of race
relations in this country and what's possible," he said.
"There
are going to be tensions that arise. But if you look at my daughters'
generation, they have an attitude about race that's entirely different
than even my generation."
Media captionThe
BBC contrasts President Obama's reactions after mass shootings, with
the levels of US gun ownership during his terms in office. (Video by
David Botti)
Mr Obama was speaking
to the BBC at the White House before departing for Kenya, where he
begins a short tour of Africa on Friday.
Talking about how he was
feeling after his recent successes, he said "every president, every
leader has strengths and weaknesses".
"One of my strengths is I
have a pretty even temperament. I don't get too high when it's high and
I don't get too low when it's low," he said.
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