In a somber moment, President Barack Obama finally discusses the war-zone level violence in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, where over 400 murders had occurred by the end of September.
Speaking candidly with Sway Calloway in a 30-minute MTV Special, “Ask Obama Live: An MTV Interview with the President,” the POTUS said that the violence strikes close to home for him.
“I live on the South side of Chicago,” said Obama, who lives in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. “Some of these murders are happening just a few blocks from where I live. I have friends whose family members have been killed.”
Though he has been heavily criticized for tap-dancing around gun violence, some would say in an ineffective attempt at pandering to the 2nd amendment, NRA-loving crowd who, in all likelihood, won’t vote for him anyway, he says that critics have to look beyond guns and embrace and “all-of-the-above approach:”
“What I know is that gun violence is part of the issue,” he said. “But part of the issue also is kids who feel so little hope and think their prospects for the future are so small that their attitude is, ‘I’m going to end up in jail or dead.’ And they will take all kinds of risks.”
Read more at BCN.
