Barack Obama: US should be ashamed

Armed people opening fire in public places and shooting at random by-passers seems to have become the norm in the United States after another school shooting happened on Tuesday, in Oregon, just a week after a Seattle school attack.

Both shootings resulted in three fatalities and other wounded people.

The advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety counted a total of 74 school shootings in the last 18 months, making it almost one attack per week.

Back in Washington, US President, Barack Obama, seems to be losing patience with the public opinion being split in opposite directions when it comes to gun safety regulations: 'If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change.'

He said the whole nation should be ashamed of the failure to get tougher gun restrictions through Congress and that shootings have become commonplace in America: 'Our levels of violence are off the charts. There's no advanced, developed country in Earth that would put up with this.'

Indeed, America's per capita firearm homicide in 2009 was 12 times higher than the average of Canada, Germany, Australia and Spain. And since 2009 the number of such mass shootings has increased from around 5 per year to as many as 15 in 2013.

Although everything indicates that immediate measures must be taken, Obama is not too optimistic that action will ensue. He said that most Congress members are 'terrified' of the National Rifle Association and that public opinion must be the first to change.

'The country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm, and we take it for granted, in ways that as a parent are terrifying to me,' said Obama.