President Barack Obama said that at least some Americans who oppose gun control take that position because they think he wants to be a dictator.
"The politics have to change and the [gun control advocates] who are troubled by this have to be as intense, organized and as adamant about this issue as folks on the other side who are absolutists and think that any gun safety measures are somehow an assault on freedom, communistic or a plot by me to take over and stay in power forever or something," Obama said Friday during a White House news conference.
President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference at the White House, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Obama took several questions about gun control one day after a gunman murdered community college students in Oregon.
"There are all kinds of crackpot conspiracy theories out there, some of which are ratified by elected officials in the other party on occasion," Obama said. "So, we have got to change the politics of this and that requires people to not just feel deeply, because I get a lot of letters after this happens telling me to do something."
Obama said that those who favor more gun control must become single-issue voters.
"You have to make sure that anyone who you are voting for is on the right side of this issue, and if they are not, even if they are great on other stuff, for a couple of election cycles you have to vote against them and let them know why you're voting against them," Obama said. "You just have to, for a while, be a single-issue voter because that's what's happening on the other side."
