President Obama (courtesy teuters)

OBAMA: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)

Mr. President and Mrs. Bush, my friend the vice president, and Dr. Biden, Mayor Rawlings, Chief Stiller (ph), clergy, members of Congress, Chief Brown. I’m so glad I met Michelle first, because she loves Stevie Wonder.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

But most of all, the families and friends and colleagues and fellow officers.

Scripture tells us that in our sufferings, there is glory, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Sometimes the truths of these words are hard to see. Right now, those words test us because the people of Dallas, people across the country are suffering.

We’re here to honor the memory and mourn the loss of five fellow Americans, to grieve with their loved ones, to support this community, and pray for the wounded, and to try and find some meaning amidst our sorrow.

For the men and women who protect and serve the people of Dallas, last Thursday began like any other day. Like most Americans, each day you get up, probably have too quick a breakfast, kiss your family goodbye, and you head to work.

But your work and the work of police officers across the country is like no other. For the moment you put on that uniform, you have answered a call that at any moment, even in the briefest interaction, may put your life in harm’s way.

OBAMA: Lorne Ahrens, he answered that call. So did his wife, Katrina, not only because she was the spouse of a police officer, but because she’s a detective on the force. They have two kids. Lorne took them fishing. And he used to proudly go to their school in uniform.

On the night before he died, he bought dinner for a homeless man. And the next night, Katrina had to tell their children that their dad was gone. “They don’t get it yet,” their grandma said. “They don’t know what to do quite yet.”

Michael Krol answered that call. His mother said, he knew the dangers of the job, but he never shied away from his duty. He came 1,000 miles from his home state of Michigan to be a cop in Dallas, telling his family, this is something I wanted to do.

And last year, he brought his girlfriend back to Detroit for Thanksgiving. And it was the last time he’d see his family.

Michael Smith answered that call. In the Army, and over almost 30 years working for the Dallas Police Association, which gave him the appropriately named Cop’s Cop Award. A man of deep faith; when he was off duty, he could be found at church or playing softball with his two girls.

Today, his girls have lost their dad, for God has called Michael home.

Patrick Zamarippa, he answered that call. Just 32, a former altar boy who served in the Navy and dreamed of being a cop. He liked to post videos of himself and his kids on social media. On Thursday night, while Patrick went to work, his partner, Christy, posted a photo of her and their daughter at a Texas Rangers game, and tagged the department so that he could see it while on duty.

Brent Thompson answered that call. He served his country as a Marine. And years later, as a contractor, he spent time in some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. And then a few years ago, he settled down here in Dallas for a new life of service as a transit cop.

And just about two weeks ago, he married a fellow officer, their whole life together waiting before them.

Like police officers across the country, these men and their families shared a commitment to something larger than themselves. They weren’t looking for their names to be up in lights. They’d tell you the pay was decent, but wouldn’t make you rich. They could have told you about the stress and long shifts. And they’d probably agree with Chief Brown when he said that cops don’t expect to hear the words “thank you” very often, especially from those who need them the most.

No. The reward comes in knowing that our entire way of life in America depends on the rule of law, that the maintenance of that law is a hard and daily labor, that in this country we don’t have soldiers in the streets or militias setting the rules.

Instead, we have public servants, police officers, like the men who were taken away from us. And that’s what these five were doing last Thursday when they were assigned to protect and keep orderly a peaceful protest in response to the killing of Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Philando Castile of Minnesota.

OBAMA: They were upholding the constitutional rights of this country.

For a while, the protests went on without incident. And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were.

In fact, the police had been part of the protest planning. Dallas P.D. even posted photos on their Twitter feeds of their own officers standing among the protesters. Two officer, black and white, smiled next to a man with a sign that read “no justice, no peace.”

And then around nine o’clock, the gunfire came. Another community torn apart; more hearts broken; more questions about what caused and what might prevent another such tragedy.

I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the past week. First, the shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, the protests. Then the targeting of police by the shooter here, an act not just of demented violence, but of racial hatred.

All of it has left us wounded and angry and hurt. This is — the deepest faultlines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened. And although we know that such divisions are not new, though they’ve surely been worse in even the recent past, that offers us little comfort.

Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience.

We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold and that things might get worse.

I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds.

(APPLAUSE)

I know we’ll make because of what I’ve experienced in my own life; what I’ve seen of this country and its people, their goodness and decency, as president of the United States. And I know it because of what we’ve seen here in Dallas, how all of you out of great suffering have shown us the meaning of perseverance and character and hope.

OBAMA: When the bullets started flying, the men and women of the Dallas police, they did not flinch and they did not react recklessly. They showed incredible restraint. Helped in some cases by protesters, they evacuated the injured, isolated the shooter, saved more lives than we will ever know.

(APPLAUSE)

We mourn fewer people today because of your brave actions.

(APPLAUSE)

“Everyone was helping each other,” one witness said. And it wasn’t about black or white. Everyone was picking each other up and moving them away.

See, that’s the America I know. The police helped Shetamia Taylor as she was shot trying to shield her four sons. She said she wanted her boys to join her to protest the incidents of black men being killed.

She also said to the Dallas P.D., thank you for being heroes. And today, her 12-year-old son wants to be a cop when he grows up. That’s the America I know.

(APPLAUSE)

In the aftermath of the shooting, we’ve seen Mayor Rawlings and Chief Brown, a white man and a black man with different backgrounds, working not just to restore order and support a shaken city, a shaken department, but working together to unify a city with strength and grace and wisdom.

(APPLAUSE)

And in the process, we’ve been reminded that the Dallas Police Department has been at the forefront of improving relations between police and the community.

(APPLAUSE)

The murder rate here has fallen. Complaints of excessive force have been cut by 64 percent. The Dallas Police Department has been doing it the right way.

(APPLAUSE) And so, Mayor Rawlings and Chief Brown, on behalf of the American people, thank you for your steady leadership. Thank you for your powerful example. We could not be prouder of you.

(APPLAUSE)

These men, this department, this is the America I know. And today in this audience, I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers. I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In this audience, I see what’s possible.

(APPLAUSE)

I see what’s possible when we recognize that we are one American family, all deserving of equal treatment. All deserving equal respect. All children of God. That’s the America I know.

Now, I’m not naive. I have spoken at too many memorials during the course of this presidency. I’ve hugged too many families who have lost a loved one to senseless violence. And I’ve seen how a spirit of unity, born of tragedy, can gradually dissipate, overtaken by the return to business as usual, by inertia and old habits and expediency.

OBAMA: I see how easily we slip back into our old notions, because they’re comfortable, we’re used to them. I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been. And so, I’m reminded of a passage in John’s Gospel, “let us love, not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.”

If we’re to sustain the unity, we need to get through these difficult times. If we are to honor these five outstanding officers who we lost, then we will need to act on the truths that we know. That’s not easy. It makes us uncomfortable, but we’re going to have to be honest with each other and ourselves.

We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professional. They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn

(APPLAUSE)

When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety. And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves, well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.

(APPLAUSE)

We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation. They didn’t necessarily stop when a Dr. King speech, or when the civil rights act or voting rights act were signed. Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. Those who deny it are dishonoring the struggles that helped us achieve that progress. But we know…

(APPLAUSE)

But America, we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain. Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this.

OBAMA: And so when African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country, voice a growing despair over what they perceive to be unequal treatment, when study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently. So that if you’re black, you’re more likely to be pulled over or searched or arrested; more likely to get longer sentences; more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime. When mothers and fathers raised their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer — yes, sir; no, sir — but still fear that something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door; still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right might end in tragedy.

When all this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid.

(APPLAUSE)

We can’t simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and coworkers and fellow church members, again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us.

We also know what Chief Brown has said is true, that so much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves.

(APPLAUSE)

As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs.

(APPLAUSE)

We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

(APPLAUSE)

And then we tell the police, “You’re a social worker; you’re the parent; you’re the teacher; you’re the drug counselor.” We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience; don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when periodically the tensions boil over.

We know those things to be true. They’ve been true for a long time. We know it. Police, you know it. Protesters, you know it. You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are. And you pretend as if there’s no context. These things we know to be true. And if we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle.

OBAMA: In the end, it’s not about finding policies that work. It’s about forging consensus and fighting cynicism and finding the will to make change.

Can we do this? Can we find the character, as Americans, to open our hearts to each other? Can we see in each other a common humanity and a shared dignity, and recognize how our different experiences have shaped us? And it doesn’t make anybody perfectly good or perfectly bad, it just makes us human.

I don’t know. I confess that sometimes I, too, experience doubt. I’ve been to too many of these things. I’ve seen too many families go through this.

But then I am reminded of what the Lord tells Ezekiel. “I will give you a new heart,” the Lord says, “and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.”

That’s what we must pray for, each of us. A new heart. Not a heart of stone, but a heart open to the fears and hopes and challenges of our fellow citizens.

That’s what we’ve seen in Dallas these past few days, and that’s what we must sustain. Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes. So that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie, who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous.

(APPLAUSE)

And the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words, and values and authority of his parents.

(APPLAUSE)

With an open heart, we can abandon the overheated rhetoric and the oversimplification that reduces whole categories of our fellow Americans, not just opponents, but to enemies.

With an open heart, those protesting for change will guard against reckless language going forward. Look at the model set by the five officers we mourn today. Acknowledge the progress brought about by the sincere efforts of police departments like this one in Dallas. And embark on the hard, but necessary work of negotiation, the pursuit of reconciliation. With an open heart, police departments will acknowledge that just like the rest of us, they’re not perfect. That insisting we do better to root out racial bias is not an attack on cops, but an effort to live up to our highest ideals.

(APPLAUSE)

And I understand these protests — I see them. They can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt.

(APPLAUSE)

Protesters can get hurt. They can be frustrated. But even those who dislike the phrase “black lives matter,” surely, we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family.

(APPLAUSE)

We should — when we hear a friend describe him by saying that, whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody, that should sound familiar to us, that maybe he wasn’t so different than us. So that we can, yes, insist that his life matters.

OBAMA: Just as we should hear the students and co-workers describe their affection for Philando Castile as a gentle soul. Mr. Rogers with deadlocks, they called him. And know that his life mattered to a whole lot of people of all races, of all ages, and that we have to do what we can without putting officers’ lives at risk, but do better to prevent another life like his from being lost.

With an open heart, we can worry less about which side has been wronged, and worry more about joining sides to do right

(APPLAUSE)

Because the vicious killer of these police officers — they won’t be the last person who tries to make us turn on one another. The killer in Orlando wasn’t nor was the killer in Charleston. We know there is evil in this world, that’s why we need police department departments.

(APPLAUSE)

But as Americans, we can decide that people like this killer will ultimately fail. They will not drive us apart. We can decide to come together and make our country reflect the good inside us, the hopes and simple dreams we share.

We also glory in our suffers because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. For all of us, life presents challenges and suffering. Accidents, illnesses, the loss of loved ones; there are times when we are overwhelmed by sudden calamity, natural or man-made. All of us, we make mistakes, and at times we are lost.

And as we get older, we learn we don’t always have control of things, not even a president does. But we do have control over how we respond to the world. We do have control or how we treat one another.

America does not ask us to be perfect, precisely because of our individual imperfections, our founders gave us institutions to guard against tyranny and ensure no one is above the law. A democracy that gives us the space to work through our differences and debate them peacefully, to make things better, even if it doesn’t always happen as fast as we’d like. America gives us the capacity to change.

But as the men we mourn today, these five heroes knew better than most, we cannot take the blessings of this nation for granted. Only by working together can we preserve those institutions of family and community, rights and responsibilities, law and self-government that is the hallmark of this nation.

It turns out we do not persevere along. Our character is not found in isolation. Hope does not arise by putting our fellow man down, it is found by lifting others up.

(APPLAUSE)

And that’s what I take away from the lives of these outstanding men. The pain we feel may not soon pass, but my faith tells me that they did not die in vain. I believe our sorrow can make us a better country. I believe our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace. Weeping may endure for a night but I’m convinced joy comes in the morning.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: We cannot match the sacrifices made by Officers Zamarippa and Ahrens, Krol, Smith and Thompson, but surely we can try to match their sense of service. We cannot match their courage, but we can strive to match their devotion.

May God bless their memory. May God bless this country that we love.

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85 COMMENTS

    • I wasn’t. He rarely passes up an opportunity to be the center of attention. And, when that opportunity gives him the chance to push his gun control, white racism message all the better. I felt great sympathy for the families of the slain officers who had to sit and listen to this piece of excrement turn a memorial service into a campaign event. May God bless and comfort them in the coming days. And, may God bless and protect those men and women who wear a badge and risk their lives so that we don’t have to come face-to-face with the barbarians in our midst.

      • +1….. He should have just thanked them for having him as a guest and extend his condolences to the families and police dept…. What a self centered bloviating hack.

    • He, and all the other politicians, are there for gun control, not for the mourning.

      When NINETEEN firefighters were killed in Arizona, an entire hotshot crew save for 1 soul, he sent Biden for the token support. And all the veep did was act like he knew the men and plug the local union.

    • (APPLAUSE)

      The murder rate here has fallen. Complaints of excessive force have been cut by 64 percent. The Dallas Police Department has been doing it the right way.

      He just proved himself gun control doesnt work!!!

  5. He’s full of crap. First to say “The police acted stupidly.” Racial division has flourished under this man’s supposed leadership of our country. If I were a black man, I’d weep that the first ever black in the Presidency was this doof.

  6. Sorry, couldn’t make it passed ‘Thank you. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)’. Seeing as how the sound of President Fistbump’s voice is a leading cause of diarrhea, I just wasn’t willing to take the chance that a transcript might not have the same effect.

  8. “And then we tell the police, “You’re a social worker; you’re the parent; you’re the teacher; you’re the drug counselor.” We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience; don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when periodically the tensions boil over.

    We know those things to be true. They’ve been true for a long time. We know it. Police, you know it. Protesters, you know it. You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are. And you pretend as if there’s no context. These things we know to be true. And if we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle.”

    There’s a whole lot of malarkey in that speech, and a lot of it is downright offensive (seriously, talking about “racist” cops at a memorial FOR COPS?), but I’ll be damned if the blind squirrel didn’t find a nut or two, either.

  9. Lying ****sucker alert:

    We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

    • I don’t know about how you keep your house mr. president, but in my house there are books everywhere and all the guns are locked up.

    • As a teenager who tried and failed to buy a handgun twice*, and has bought dozens of books without a hitch, I wish it was that easy to buy a glock in my community.

      *And by failed at buying a handgun I am referring to the fact the private sales fell through because somebody else made a better offer to the seller than me, I have passed several background checks.

    • FedUp. You are obviously too “white privileged” to be aware of the “gun library” in every area that distributes guns for no money, with only the whiff of ‘proof of residence required’ to get a card to check the guns out. I haven’t found a tiny-town library in my state (in the heart of the country) without computers and wideband. Getting a gun that easy> Even and illegal one will cost hundreds.

      Always available, but lightyears more complicated than a book or a frackin’ computer.

      • I started watching about 10min before the “Glocks easier than books” comment and stopped shortly after but did anybody notice the 2 people in uniform in the front row on either side of him applauded every time the crowd did except for after that comment? Thought it was interesting.

        • There was a (tiny) part of me that thought that his usual egregious rhetoric would set one of these cops off. It would appear that he came close watching the speech.

    • Too bad he doesn’t try and read a book besides rules for radicals, the koran, and Mao’s little red book. Might do him some good, but what are we talking about? He knows he’s full of shit because he must feel his cheeks moving every time he reads a line from his telescreen.

    • The quantities of guns shouldn’t matter. What you are describing is an illegal sale. Say it with me now…I..L..L..E..G..A..L.

      Why are the teens of these communities so desperate for a gun, and who are these people selling them illegally? Are there problems in these communities? Why are they populated with people that are so predisposed to do illegal things?

      There’s your problem. Go and work on solving that and leave legal gun owners alone. Because the acts on one do not define the all. Didn’t you say that recently?

    • I’d like to know where I can get $8.99 Glocks. Because that is what a new paperback costs in my neck of the woods.

      Or maybe a ‘used Glock store’ that sell them off for 79 cents each. (Price of a used paperback at local used book store)

      Seriously, sign me.

  10. Why is he speaking at a 6th grade level? Does anyone else notice his logic is flawed? Why did he go so, so long? This is the speech of a member of the house of representative late at 2:30am on CSPAN. Not presidential.

    • “Why is he speaking at a 6th grade level?”

      Is that a serious question? It’s very deliberate.

      That’s the education level of who he wants to reach, and it’s quite frankly an insulting assessment of what he thinks America is…

        • Bumping right up there with the percentage of illegals in this country.

          How many men (black or otherwise) sit with their children and speak about amendments of the Constitution? I do and it’s amazing what questions two 7 year old ask about them.

          The only reason kids cannot read is adults don’t take the time.

        • Literacy was much better when fewer kids spent their early years in school. Research 20th century literacy rates and phonics. What’s worse is it wasn’t an accident.

        • It’s the *style* that he uses that grates on me.

          He gives off an air that he’s half looking down his nose at you when he speaks.

        • @ Mk10108

          Excellent response. Taking time, raising your children, educating them. It is all the responsibility of the parents. Not society, not the schools, and damn well not ‘the village’.

          I take time several times a week to ask if my boys have heard anything at school or on the news that they don’t understand or want to talk/know more about. I am also very interest in what they are being told by their teachers, etc. so I can actively counter the built-in indoctrination that is part and parcel of academic organizations.

          If you don’t take with your kids, don’t be surprised if they turn out to be liberal progressive drones.

  11. I watched it so you don’t have to. My first impression was just how much better W is at this sort of thing. His awesome, sobering speach was heart wrenching, and COMPLETELY apolitical. A portrait of class.

    Obama barely makes it 2 minutes before he starts getting political. He stands on the graves of these fine men, and pleads with us to realize that the shooter kinda had a point, and asks how would we feel if we were being abused and nobody would listen to us cough TRUMP cough… sorry, something in my throat. He kind of accidentally tells the truth about the breakdown of the black family, and it’s pre_eminent role in our gun violence statistics, pointing out that God wants more socialism so government can teach poor people to be better parents. Then, he looks at US, waves his finger, and says “and YOU, law abiding citizens, YOU are the ones who give them the guns, how dare you criticize them!?.” Then he pretends to cry.

    The end.

    • I think he means flood like Fast and Furious gun running that he and Holder liked so much.

  14. I can’t believe this POS dug up the old, “It’s easier to buy a Glock than a book or a computer”. Um, no it’s not asshole! If buying a Glock were as easy as buying a computer or a book I could have a Glock, AR 15, or a fully select fire M240 delivered to my doorstep via Amazon Prime in 2 days. Instead I have to fill out an f#%?€£g 4473 and endure a NICS every time I exercise my second ammendment rights. I wish this dickhead would just go golf and stop running his cockholster. Makes me sick to my stomach. Ok, rant over…..

    • Prime Guns – at your door in two days, free shipping.

      Where do I sign up? I’d have a use for Amazon Locker finally 😀

    • I had to back and read that again, then a third time. I thought I was misreading the transcript.

      Once again, shocked and disappointed in the POTUS.

      • We listened to it live on NPR. My wife looked at me and said “did he just open with a f%#%%ing joke like he’s at the press dinner? At a funeral?”. She said the exact same thing. The ultimate in low class. Course and uncouth.

    • Glad I’m not the only one who caught that. I was not surprised however. I didn’t expect him to crack a joke, but I’m not surprised.

  16. Then he told me I’m bias and if I’m honest, deep within my mind I know it to be true.

    Really….after two laps around the planet, skirmish under my belt, leading both light & dark green Marines as both NCO and officer. Where I physically slammed a fellow southern officer to the deck for saying niggers don’t deserve to wear the uniform. When I and a Captian left a luncheon when a civilian said disparaging remarks about Mexicans, I cannot help myself from being bias and racist.

    Why the Dallas police didn’t walk out is beyond my ability to comprehend.

  17. IMO, it is very unbecoming of a president to cry. He is the president and “head of state,” not an emotional social justice warrior. Lame.

  18. “Scripture tells us that in our sufferings, there is glory, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. ”

    This chap has got this all wrong!

  19. He said that communities have been
    flooded with guns, he is the reason why. Since he became president my house has been flooded by guns

  20. “We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book”

    Yea right I live in California and believe me it is allot more difficult to get a computer than a Glock. If you want to buy a computer you do NOT need the following….

    1) Handgun Safety Certificate Card ($25)
    2) Proof of residence (Example: Copy of Utility Bill, Car Registration)
    3) Pay ($35) so the DOJ can do a background check
    4) Wait 10 days and drive back to pick it up.

    But then again Obama says we need to close the online gun sales loop hole. Maybe next time I will try that…

    Thanks
    Barry !!!

  21. I have not read or seen any of it, because i know it is only going to make me upset, and it just is not worth it. As the son of a LEO I am appalled by this man, and sickened that he would show up to politicize the death of these brave officers, many of whom have likely provided security for him and his staff during his visits to DFW in the past. He has directly contributed to the atmosphere that encourages a blatant disregard for truth, logic, and accountability and instead fosters division, hate, and so many false narratives. He is a lousy excuse for a human being, and I have taken to turning my back to him every time I see his face on television.

  22. “America does not ask us to be perfect, precisely because of our individual imperfections, our founders gave us institutions to guard against tyranny and ENSURE NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.” (Emphasis added)

    Yeah, no one except the political elite and successor of YOUR political party.

  24. every time this lying, patronizing, EXPLETIVE DELETED opens his mouth, he makes me physically sick.

  25. I think Mr President conveniently forgets that gun control is a part of Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws barred Black men from owning firearms. But then you know Mr President only addresses what fits his narrative.

    Regarding, Dallas a lot of ordinances were aimed at poor Black males so they could be frisked and searched without due process. Particularly the wearing of baggy clothing. I’m not a big fan of over-sized shirts or baggy pants but nowhere in the institution does it say you cannot wear them or be subject to being searched without due process. We have various illegal ordinances out here in Houston too, but they are aimed at homeless people rather than particular race.

  26. Presidential speech from the memorial for the six slain officers in Dallas. The 1st 10 minutes were excellent, somber, uniting, poignant….. Then the political agenda- , he’s says were all a bit racist and glocks are easier to get than books.
    **Facepalm**
    Soooooo I’m racist and iillegal guns used by inner-city gangbangers are the fault of law abiding gun owners……. America is being led by leftist political agendas and I for one am tired of it.

  27. A surprisingly inoffensive speech, for the most part. Every once in a while President Social Justice almost gets something right.

    But of course he had to trot out the stupid “it’s easier to get a Glock than a book” shibboleth.

    If that old chestnut had even the slightest bit of veracity, then I should be able to go to a taxpayer-funded firearms library and check out anything from a musket to an M-16 for two weeks free of charge, no questions asked. And the giant university library, with its vast trove of 2 million-plus arms of all sorts, to which I’d have unfettered access as a university staff member…be still, my beating heart.

    On the other hand, it could also mean that before being allowed to buy a book — from a federally licensed dealer only, of course — I’d have to fill out a Form 4473 and undergo a background check first.

    Loaning books to friends? Criminalized in several states. Hell, in Washington D.C., I could go to jail just for touching one. Want to sell a book across state lines? You’ll have to transfer it through a licensed dealer. Internet sales, same deal. No doorstep delivery for you, bucko. That dangerous book has to be shipped to a federally licensed dealer, who will then background-check you and charge you a transfer fee before you can pick it up.

    High-capacity infotainment devices like computers? Say hello to your new best friends in the Bureau of Allegory, Texts, and Fables. Pay for a $200 tax stamp, submit a “please, may I?” application to register your device with the ATF, wait six to nine months for processing, get approval from your local chief law enforcement officer and/or create a trust, and FINALLY…eventually…you can take possession of your new, quiet, efficient computer. (Process subject to further clarification/obfuscation from the ATF, of course.)

    Connecting to the internet? Ha! Fully automatic information delivery has been restricted since 1968 (see the ATF rules above), and new networks haven’t been available to the public since the registry was closed in 1983. People pay more for that than some of us pay for our houses.

    Still, despite all those hurdles, I have a collection of several hundred books in my house. Maybe even a thousand; truth be told, I stopped counting a long time ago. There are bookshelves everywhere. If I ever got arrested for a public spree-reading, the media would breathlessly report on the vast arsenal I possessed. (Who actually *needs* that many books? That quiet, polite man was quietly insane!)

    Yep, it’s definitely easier to get a book than it is to get hold of a gun. *facepalm*

  28. i would love to attend one of his speeches (not this one though) just so i could shout bleep you (again not at this one)

  29. Obvouisly the President’s Glock comment was ridiculous.

    Obama has be a disaster on forign policy, fiscal policy, Heatlth care, ISIS, and so much more.

    I have to say though…..this speech was good (Overall). There have been alot of event Obama should have gone to and did not. the fact is he did go to Dallas. I think he spoke well of the fallen officers. He actaully touched on alot of concepts that I think most of us would agree with. There is evil in the world. There is a lack of understanding in the nation right now. When the attack started every one did start helping each other. DPD has done a great job in reducing crime rates.

    There is a long list of things I believe this president has done wrong. For me, this speech is not on that list.

  31. For the last eight years or so I have been turning off the radio or changing the station every time this POS spews into a microphone, now I can’t even stand to read a transcript of his words.

  32. I’ve refrained from using profanity here but today……….?

    F*** THAT POS!

    I hope that filthy bathhouse buggerer and HIV/AIDS ridden Marxist minstrel strokes out while sucking on his crack pipe in the Rose Garden tonight.

  33. They should’ve all gotten up and turned their back on this piece of shit.

    In fact, if this wasn’t the memorial for their fallen brothers, I’m convinced they would have done just that.

  34. This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.
    Sounds like something out of a Laurel and Hardy show.

  35. I haven’t seen or read his speech. I have better things to do like sitting on my couch……
    As President he should just shut about guns. They have their time and place in discussions. This wasn’t one of them.
    But he is after all a politician and has to add his 2 cents all the time.
    Im so sick of Libitards and especially the head Libitard constantly bring it up I wont waste my time listening to his constant inserting gun control into every subject he speaks about.
    Hes being such an idiot about it.
    Nothing he has said will stop one criminal while being a PIA to me and my daily life.
    Beside how can the commander and head idiot be listened to when his own home town isn’t ever even mentioned.

  37. Obama’s self-important rambling drivel does not surprise me in the least. What is disappointing is that anyone would applaud in that audience.

  38. We are so much safer now that Obama has healed Dallas. Guess we can sell our guns and join hands in the drum circle.

  39. So, a tyrant speaks. He causes the division that led to the murder of Dallas Police Officers, and then he invites himself to their memorial service. Despicable.

  42. Worst POTUS in American history. What an utter disgrace, and an insult to Dallas PD and America. Shame on you Obama!

  43. “Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime.”

    And your leadership, or lack thereof, of the most divisive administration in living memory, has set them back by decades.

    GG.

  44. Cracking a joke was in extremely bad taste, Barry.

    In all respect a question.
    Why is this thread in TTAG? Except for the Glock mention there was nothing about guns in his speech. I implore my fellow PoGs to hear this. Many mistakes are made because we can, but should we? I’m saying I am working real hard in an unfree state to explain our 2a rights. Many converts are women. These liberals agree when they get the facts that they are being lied to. If Hillary wins we are going to need sympathetic ears or it will be harder!

    A bash the Pres. session is beneath us. This space is best used for the gear and history and legal issues that we are enthusiastic about. So what furthers our rights? Did any of this help us be safe or educate the ignorant. Did it reinforce negative stereotypes of gun owners? The people are susceptible to lies because they are ignorant and afraid.

    We can present ourselves as a healthy community that values the Constitution.

    • “we can, but should we?”

      I for one am getting so sick of this phrase.

      “A bash the Pres. session is beneath us.”

      Your opinion is duly noted. Now it will be ignored by most of us. We’ll “bash” whoever the hell we want whenever we want. You know, in the spirit of that that whole “Freedom of Speech” thingy we’ve heard about.

      “This space is best used for the gear and history and legal issues that we are enthusiastic about. “

      If you think you know how best to run a gun blog and ‘police’ the comment section…start your own. Why the need to tell this one how it should be run?

      Robert has made it very clear over the years that editorial decisions are his and his alone. If he wants to publish an article of the best style of panties to wear while b1tching on the Internet, it’s his choice…guns mentioned or not.

      What’s so hard to understand about this?

      Ah….here we go:

      “I am working real hard in an unfree state’

      Let me guess: California or somewhere in the NE. Right?

      You see, THIS is why people in so-called “Free States” are so worried about people from “Unfree States” moving in. Yes, we want you to have more freedom than you do now, but all too often, such people bring their “unfree” attitudes with them.

      Freedom does not mean everything is done your way, the way you want and everyone agrees with you. It does not mean you get to tell other people how “it should be done,” or least to do so with any expectation they will listen and obey.

      Freedom is messier than that.

      • Just my opinion.
        Robert can do what he wants we can write what we want.
        The great thing about this site is that differing ideas get expressed.
        Freedom is messier hence Hillary is most dangerous.
        I hope you didn’t think I was defending Obama’s actions.

        I appreciate what you’ve said, believe it.

  45. …easier for an illegal/immigrant to vote than get a computer. There, fixed it.

  46. (APPLAUSE)

    The murder rate here has fallen. Complaints of excessive force have been cut by 64 percent. The Dallas Police Department has been doing it the right way.

    He just proved gun control doesnt work !

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