them. to reduce auto fatalities. we have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives. so the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon? when there are law abiding citizens who do under such regulations, doesn't make sense.

so tonight as those of us who are lucky enough to hug our kids a little closer, are thinking about the families who aren't so fortunate, i'd ask the american people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws. if and to save lives. and to let young people grow up. and that will require a change of politics on this issue. and it will require that the american people, individually, whether you are a democrat, or a republican, or an independent, when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of continuing death for innocent people should be a

relevant factor in your decision. if you think this is a problem, then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views. and i would particularly ask america's 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 it's speaking for you you.and each time this happens i'm going to bring this up. each time this happens i'm going

to say that we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. and this is not something i can do by myself. i've got to have a congress and i've got to have state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this. i hope and pray that i don't have to come out again during my tenure as president, to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. but based on my experience as president, i can't guarantee that. and that's terrible to say. and it can change. my 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. thank you. >> president obama there making a very emotional speech at the white house. he has made this same speech as he said numerous times. he said his thoughts and prayers are not enough. he said we're the only advanced country in the world that sees these shootings every couple of months. and he said, we need common-sense gun safety laws. also observing us is our senior washington correspondent mike viqueria. boy, mike, i would say the president appeared angry and annoyed. what would you say? >> you know it's almost as if there's nothing left for him to say. and that's as frustrating as

anything for president. there's certainly very little he can do from a political standpoint except to displace the kind of visceral emotion you saw the president use there, exposed at the white house podium in the briefing rooms room. the president speaking extemporaneously without notes for 15 minutes. you know adam in july this past july in the wake of the charleston shootings, the horrific shootings at the african american church, the president gave a speech saying the inability to pass gun control was the most frustrating part of his presidency, the seven years of his presidency, and that showed through there. he decried the routine of the way we speak of this as americans and citizens, the routine of his own statements, although that was certainly out of the ordinary from president obama over the course of the last 15 minutes and decrying the

routine as well of those who favor gun rights and who inevitably and this is the past pattern certainly that the past pattern not enough guns or the perpetrators, who carry out these crimes, as mentally ill as they may be, know there are guns present in schools and shopping centers or community collegeless as it was today, the president rejecting that logic as he has in the past again citing the statistics, one is that the united states has three times the murder rate by use of a firearm as any other developed country in the world. and the president again hitting a theme that he has hit in the past on this occasion and others and that is, people have to get engaged politically. citing the fact that in mid term elections barely six -- barely four in ten, only four in ten eligible voters show up, citing

polls the president, majority of americans believe at least in background checks for background purposes the gun show loophole expiring some time ago, the assault weapons ban unable to be renewed, the president, this is a familiar role for him the consoler-in-chief after tucson, after aurora, what was different in charleston, he came out in that very same spot and seem resigned the fact he couldn't do anything about it, people seized on that and he walked it back and a president frustrated, emotional no question about it in the wake of another horrific shooting adam. >> absolutely. something we all thought in the newsroom, which is the reporting has become routine on this. >> reporter: right. >> you start to ask the question, those of us in the news business, what can we do to talk about this differently? there is no easy answer on this. the polling was clear. the president would seem to have

the american people on his side, that there is support for some common sense gun legislation in this country. there is support to try to move the ball forward on this. and yet this country does not seem to have the will to do that. and the president didn't specifically call out the honoree by name, but are these groups reaching it to gun owners there, does that get anywhere in this debate? >> reporter: it's interesting adam, politicizing this, it should be public utility sized, forgive me if we get into a little politics here. gun control to use the phrase is not a voting issue that drives people who fai favor it to the s as much as other issues. the only people really voting in mid term elections for congress for the house of representatives every two years are people who are base voters who are red meat

voters, and those on the side of gun rights, to use another phase, are more likely the vote in those cases than those who favor gun control. all over the place, you're right, polling indicated that many americans did favor some form of gun control. recently, in the last year or so that flipped, a bare majority in a few nationally known and respected polls, the pew forum indicated or suggested that more people now favored gun rights. a lot of people dispute that, obviously there are all kinds of numbers you can pick and choose. but one thing that gun control advocates show, they are making headway in terms of restricting gun ownership or at least ensuring that background checks are done and more gun safety laws are put into effect. certainly at the federal level, it's a third rail, it's untouchable.

after the newtown tragedy, the children who were murdered, the unthinkable act at sandy hook, i followed members of congress but it fell are apart a apart at tht minute. it is clearly an uphill struggle for those who favor more gun safety laws, closing the gun show loophole, instituting a ban or restrictions on assault weapons. as the president clearly indicated on the frustration and emotion clearly on display here this evening it is an uphill struggle and may not happen any time soon adam. >> mike viqueria, live in washington, thanks so much for joining the conversation on this. mike is right, they have had attempts to try to pass gun safety laws, by doing that at

the local level those have found success in washington state, just north of oregon this year, they did close a gun show loophole using a referendum, even statewide, most were opposed to that, seattle was the main voting block and they were able to get that passed and that law has now taken effect. that could be a tactic in other states across the country for those pushing for more gun control laws. allen schauffler is now on the scene. first live pictures we are getting from allen. allen, good to have you with us. boy the news conference we heard from the president of umpqa community college, was so vivid, parents waiting for the last group of students, not knowing whether their children were on

it or not. have those parents gotten word? >> adam let me assure you reporting on this stuff is anything but routine. doesn't matter how many of these have happened. i just talked to a woman who was here, looked like a sister and daughter or sister and niece. she was waiting for any contact with her daughter who had been at the campus today, she hadn't heard from her today. she wasn't getting any information from law enforcement where she was whether she had been brought out from campus. somebody came out of the building where a lot of the people were brought in buses there the shooting scene and huddled with that woman, the people who were with them, they left in tears. the woman said there's no more, there's no more. i don't know whether that final bus we're all hearing about is on the way or whether everybody who was involved and evacuated has been evacuated. there were other people leaving this building in tears, in the

arms of loved ones. absolutely nothing routine at this scene about covering this kind of shooting. it's human beings involved and we're seeing a lot of emotion involved here. a lot of folks, some of the folks behind us who have just come out here heard about this obviously, they have brought water, offering rides and sandwiches to anyone who needs it. i talked to a woman who just drove 45 minutes, i said did you know someone? she said no i just came to pray. that's scene. i don't know if we will get more people here another bus load to come in from the campus it is possible we'll be here and hopefully talk to some of the folks who get off that bus and the people here who are waiting to meet them if in fact they do. we are being kept in a very small area, hard to get information at all out of the people running the scene here, we'll keep an effort on that and get back to you. >> allen can we stick with you for a couple of minutes. we believe you're the first

national reporter live on the scene on the ground there. and i wonder if you could, i don't know what the camera positioning is like, it's tough to ask these questions. but kind of the vantage point what's happening around you at this area? >> reporter: huge building to our right which is the fairgrounds business office. the main building here on the fairgrounds which is pretty large sprawling area, that's where they're bringing people awho were evacuated from the campus earlier today, media not allowed in and i've been able to identify nobody here who is cleared to speak to the media about what's going on. folks in the background are gathering at a different building, they have got stacks of water and tables there to take people's names to help people connect if possible, try to put all of this together, lots of people standing around, everybody pretty bleak right now. difficult, difficult situation. again we've seen people leaving the front of this building in

tears, obviously getting the news that they did not want to get. interesting comment you made adam about the gun loop closure up in washington state and how that vote was driven mostly by the west side voting by seattle, tacoma, olympia and most of the state voteagainst it. the same would be true here in oregon, any kind of legislation like that is going to be driven by the portland, eugene, salem area, the more of the state would be more in support of gun rights rather than gun control measures. i can guarantee that's the feeling for most of the folks in douglas county. >> we may be jumping the gun there allen but that's correct. this conversation will happen eventually, it will happen in oregon and you'll hear from opponents of that that you know especially right now at this stage. we don't know anything about the alleged gunman. we don't know where he got these guns, whether or not these guns

were obtained legally, whether any law would have prevented that, and there's a big conversation about mental health services out there and they have grief counselors out there for these families right now in the aftermath but what services could have been offered beforehand? that conversation always comes up. >> i'd like to add that's a huge question. and also we have no idea about the motive yet. the president spoke very emotionally about comparing terrorism deaths with mass shooting deaths and putting those side by side. we don't know where this shooting would fall, in that distinction. we just don't know right now. so it's a little too early to jump ship on that one, as well. we should remember that just about 50, 60 miles up the road, one of the first modern mass shootings really horrible where a student named kip kinkle went into his high school and killed a lot of folks. this part of the country not unfamiliar with the kind of

horror that they're facing right now in roseburg. >> and the part of the country that does geographically have higher gun ownership right allen? >> absolutely, absolutely. i don't know the figures but i would be willing to bet that the percentage of gun ownership here in douglas county is quite high. >> yeah, i know i spent some time out there with a rancher, a lot of sportsmen, hunters as well driving through there. it's interesting, you see wineries, a lot of recreation and you do see a lot of businesses offering gun services, right? >> reporter: absolutely, yeah. i think important for the rest of the country, for the eastern seaboard, for the major urban centers to understand, a lot of the country is just like this country. >> all right, allen schauffler live there in roseburg. allen wow in the background you could see the people walking there looking for information.

it's hard to imagine what they're thinking. jim goldburg is a public information officer at sacred heart medical center joining us live on the phone. thanks for taking the time to speak to us. i know you're incredibly busy at the hospital. clear up the numbers, first of all, the patients that were brought to the hospital. >> we've received three patients here. all women. ranging in age from 18 to 34. and we were prepared to receive more initially it sounded as though there might be as many as a half dozen or more but our information now is that these are the three patients that we'll see today. >> so you're 70 miles there from campus. i know you're familiar with the area. are there hospitals in that area that could have possibly gotten in some patients as well? or -- >> in roseburg mercy medical center would have been the primary place you would have

taken injured people right away. but there were you know so many people injured, they needed additional capacity. and we provided that. we're a level 2 trauma center here. so we were able to support mercy medical center in taking care of three of their patients. >> thank you for answering what i was going to ask you next, what level trauma center you are, you're a level 2. could you tell our viewers what that means and if you could, could you tell us a little bit about the injuries of these three patients, these three women? >> well, two are still in surgery so i don't have any specific information. their injuries are gunshot wounds. and so i don't know the extent of the injuries or the conditions of the patients at this point. the third patient is still being evaluated. and having diagnostic workups done and could be in the operating room now. i haven't got a current update on that. so our ability to handle trauma is, we can handle just about

anything there is other than you know extensive burns or transplant needs but certainly gunshot wounds falls within the normal course of our program. >> the president of the community college said last week they had a drill in case there was any kind of scenario like this. as a level 2 trauma center how do you prepare for the possibility of a mass casualty situation like this? >> well, unfortunately, we go through an exercise that is very similar to the real world events that occurred today. we specifically gear the exercise so that not everything is known. so that there are areas where people have to make independent assumptions about a situation that they have never are coordinated before, law enforcement, other -- then we have to take care of the need that families have and the news

media have about information about a mass casualty event. we drill through all those scenarios. >> you use the word, interestingly, unfortunately to describe that. have you seen in your career working there at the hospital and over the course of that hospital the need change over the years to prepare for something like this? >> well, i was in the community though, i worked at the daily newspaper the register guardian in town when the thurston shoots took place in 1998. we are satly a community that has had previous experience. i think someone mentioned that in the prior interview on the air. we actually cared for more people in that thurston experience than we are now. and we have staff members at sacred heart. that cared for thurston victims. >> thank you for taking time to speak for us.

thank you so much for the information, the update. he said two currently in surgery, one still being evaluated. the three patients that they have are 18 to 34-year-old women. all right let's go back to allen schauffler he is on the scene there in roastburg, oregon and allen i understand now you can give us a little better sense of what's happening on the ground . >> a little better sense we're on shor sort of a short tether e and we'll take you on a walk tour and show law we can at this point. this is the building where faculty students were brought in, bussed in to the college. to the right you'll see people who have been bringing water, sandwiches, offers of rides, shelter, whatever they can to the people. i just spoke to someone in the building she said there were pastors and counselors inside, she estimated about half a dozen

families inside, nobody who can address our questions at this point but a very, very somber scene. so we know there are half a dozen or so families in this building presumably waiting for one more bus to get here with people from the scene. we just haven't had any confirmation other than a press conference some time ago that that bus actually exists and is on the way. i can tell you everybody here certainly hoping that it is. that is the scene here at the douglas county fairgrounds. we're a couple of miles from town, about four miles from the community college campus. we stopped there, that college campus completely shut down. this is where the conferences are being held at this time. >> allen, tell me what you saw driving around there, i can imagine the security parameter is -- perimeter is really wide .

what were you able to see? >> absolutely no access to the campus itself, he completely locked off. there is one road into that campus. it is in a fairly secluded area, north of town. it doesn't connect physically to any rose burg proper, it is bounded one side by the river as well so there's no access there. that campus is completely off limits unless somebody wanted to like in from the back side and test that security perimeter, i'm not going there today frankly. >> no, no. >> we'd expect the investigation happening there to happen into and possibly through the night. >> yeah, we are still awaiting a possible update there, at the command center which is a few minutes away from where you are where the law enforcement officials have been gathering. so if we go to that, allen we're going to cut you off, if i can stay with you just a couple of minutes. >> reporter: sure. >> i was curious, just to your

right i see there is some police line and tape and i see one other camera set up and a couple of still photographers. is there a large overwhelming media presence? i know after the newtown shooting that that became a real problem, actually, for folks in that community, that there was just so much media and it became overwhelming for those people. and sadly, that is possibly a situation that could play out in roseburg. what is the status of media descending upon this city william. >> yeah, i'd say that's almost certainly going to happen here . people in situations like this get media fatigue in a hurry and for real positive reasons. i'd say there are six or eight camera crews here, a couple of live trucks in the parking lot outside this facility here. the crime tape that you see, that's for us, we're not being allowed or they would rather we

not go to the building where the actual people are. a town of this size with the likes of us descending on them asking questions with our microphones and cameras, they're going to get tired of us very fast. >> i just can't help thinking about the comments from the president of the university, there are parents waiting for a bus. i keep staring, personally hoping that the bus comes down and a bunch of kids get off and reunite with their family. tell me about the small conversations that you've had with some of the people there on the ground. >> reporter: well, we talked with one young lady, i think she said she was 19 who was in the classroom right next door to where the shooting happened. in the brief time i was able to listen in on that conversation she described hearing shots, wondering if this was some kind of shooting like she'd seen all over the country then hearing more shots and more shots and

realizing that oh yeah, this was bad. she described someone who was in the military or served in the military as getting up in this classroom right next door to where the shooting happened and saying, okay we need to go right now and help to get the folks from that classroom out the door. talked to another woman who again was waiting all day long for a contact with her daughter, their names aren't important at this point since so little had been confirmed had not had contact with her daughter, had not had sufficient information to placate her from law enforcement or any of the people here. and then was given some news, i don't know exactly what, which caused her and the people that she was left with to head into this building in tears, and clearly, quite traumatized. another group of three people, two people supporting a woman physically going out the front here just crying her heart out. >> allen, thank you for that reporting. randall pinkston will be back in

yosemite. just a moment.

>> this is aljazeera america, live from new york city. mass shooting. more than a dozen dead after a gunman opens fire on a college campus. >> if it looks like a terrorist, walks like a terrorist, fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist, right. >> targeting terrorists, russia defends it's airstrikes on syria if. >> and momentsf