Obama calls for greater gun control after Colorado shooting

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Saturday once called again for tighter controls on "weapons of war" after a gunman killed three people and wounded nine more Friday at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado.

In a statement, Obama said the gunman used an assault weapon, "terrorizing an entire community" and killing a police officer and two people he had sought to protect.

"This is not normal," Obama said. "We can't let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough."

Obama has regularly issued calls for tighter restrictions on weapons after mass shootings. Last month, Obama expressed frustration with the ready availability of such weapons after a gunman killed 10 people after opening fire in a classroom at a community college in Oregon. That shooting was the fourth since August on a college campus.

Obama, visibly angry, told reporters in October that the United States is "the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."

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The president concluded his statement Saturday by praising the police officer from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Garrett Swasey, 44, who died while responding to the shooting.

"May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save — and may he grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing," Obama said.