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President Obama On Planned Parenthood Shooting: 'We Can't Let It Become Normal'

  • by: Alan Duke
  • (Sat, 28 Nov 2015 22:18:04 Z)

The Black Friday attack on a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado has President Obama again calling for legislation to keep guns out of the hands of "people who have no business wielding them."

A heavily-armed man shot a dozen people -- killing a police officer and two civilians -- and barricaded himself inside the Colorado Springs clinic where women's health services, including abortions, are performed for five hours before surrendering Friday, November 27, 2015.

Suspect Robert Lewis Dear, 58, is a native of South Carolina and moved to Hartsel, Colorado, a small town 65 miles west of the clinic, in recent years. Investigators have not publicly commented on his motive.

"We don't yet know what this particular gunman's so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect.

"This is not normal," Obama said in a statement tweeted Saturday. "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."

The police officer killed was Garrett Swasey, 44, a six-year veteran of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Police. Swasey was on the campus nearby when he responded to the shots fired call by the Colorado Springs Police, according to a school statement. Three Colorado Springs officers were also wounded, but survived.

It was the second mass shooting in Colorado Springs in a month.

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About the author:

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

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