Barack Obama Quotes About Violence

• Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence - they deserve a simple vote.

  Barack Obama

  Gun, Simple, Community

  Fourth Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 12 February 2013, Washington, D.C.

• No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.

  Barack Obama

  People, Radical Islam, Violence

  Barack Obama's speech in Closing of the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. February 18, 2015.

• Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say 'we are not afraid,' and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Mean, School

  Fifth Presidential State of the Union, delivered 28 January 2014

• It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name - modern slavery.

  Barack Obama

  Talking, Common Humanity, Names

  President Barack Obama's remarks at Clinton Global Initiative at Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in New York City, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. September 23, 2014.

• We Americans are not an inherently more violent people than folks in other countries. We're not inherently more prone to mental health problems. The main difference that sets our nation apart is what makes us so susceptible to so many mass shootings is that we don't do enough, we don't take the basic commonsense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. What's different in America is it's easy to get your hands on a gun.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Gun, Mass Shootings

  "CNN Newsroom" with Rosa Flores, www.cnn.com. September 22, 2013.

• We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.

  Barack Obama

  Evil, Gun Control, Trying

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• No other advanced nation endures this kind of violence. None. Here in America, the murder rate is three times what it is in other developed nations. The murder rate with guns is ten times what it is in other developed nations. And there's nothing inevitable about it. It comes about because of decisions we make or fail to make. And it falls upon us to make it different.

  Barack Obama

  Fall, Gun, America

• We cannot stop every act of senseless violence. We cannot know every evil that lurks in troubled minds. But if we can prevent even one tragedy like this, save even one life, spare other families what these families are going through, surely we've got an obligation to try.

  Barack Obama

  Justice, Evil, Community

  "CNN Newsroom" with Rosa Flores, www.cnn.com. September 22, 2013.

• Together we can change our culture for the better by ending violence against women and girls, artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes and get us thinking and talking about what matters, and all of us, in our lives, have the power to set an example. Join our campaign to stop this violence.

  Barack Obama

  Change, Girl, Attitude

  "Sam Smith Wins 4 Grammy Awards, Including Song Of The Year". wwno.org. February 9, 2015.

• To anyone out there who has ever been assaulted: You will never be alone. You are never alone. We have your back. I've got your back.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Violence, Violence Against Women

• If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can't just treat those symptoms in isolation . We have to heal that entire community.

  Barack Obama

  Healing, Home, School

  "Obama Says He, Too, Is a Poverty Fighter". Speech at the Town Hall Education, Arts & Recreation Campus, Washington, DC, www.washingtonpost.com. July 19, 2007.

• The number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands. And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing.

  Barack Obama

  Gun, Numbers, Issues

  Interview with Jon Sopel, www.bbc.com. July 24, 2015.

• But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it's hard, and even if it's politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, Country, Pain

  "CNN Newsroom" with Rosa Flores, www.cnn.com. September 22, 2013.

• Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not 'Islamic.' No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state. It was formerly al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, and has taken advantage of sectarian strife and Syria's civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian border. It is recognized by no government, nor the people it subjugates. ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, War, Taken

  "Is It ISIS or ISIL? That Depends On Who You're Asking". Interview with Arun Rath, wvik.org. September 14, 2014.

• If we neglect or abandon those who are suffering in poverty ... not only are we depriving ourselves of potential opportunities for markets and economic growth, but ultimately that despair may turn to violence that turns on us.

  Barack Obama

  Opportunity, Suffering, Growth

• We will stand against violence and intimidation. We will stand for the rights and dignity of all human beings.

  Barack Obama

  Rights, Against Violence, Dignity

  Third Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 24 January 2012, Washington, D.C.

• We remember the specter of sectarian violence -- al Qaeda's attacks on mosques and pilgrims, militias that carried out campaigns of intimidation and campaigns of assassination. And in the face of ancient divisions, you stood firm to help those Iraqis who put their faith in the future.

  Barack Obama

  War, Campaigns, Division

  Remarks on the End of the War in Iraq, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. December 14, 2011.

• Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

  Barack Obama

  Army, Men, Evil

  Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture, delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

• I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there's nothing weak - nothing passive - nothing naïve - in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

  Barack Obama

  Kings, Powerful, Violence

  Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture, delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

• Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.

  Barack Obama

  Paris, Secret, Unions

  Barack Obama, (2008). “Change We Can Believe In”, p.274, Canongate Books

• Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals.

  Barack Obama

  Goal, Trying, Bombs

  Address to the Nation on the End of Operation Iraqi Freedom, delivered 31 August 2010, Oval Office of the White House, Washington, D.C.

• That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, War, Home

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

• For half of the world's population, roughly three billion people around the world living on less than two dollars a day, an election is at best a means, not an end; a starting point, not deliverance. These people are looking less for an "electocracy" than for the basic elements that for most of us define a decent life--food, shelter, electricity, basic health care, education for their children, and the ability to make their way through life without having to endure corruption, violence, or arbitrary power.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Mean, Two

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.317, Canongate Books

• When the United States stands up for human rights, by example at home and by effort abroad, we align ourselves with men and women around the world who struggle for the right to speak their minds, to choose their leaders, and to be treated with dignity and respect. We also strengthen our security and well being, because the abuse of human rights can feed many of the global dangers that we confront - from armed conflict and humanitarian crises, to corruption and the spread of ideologies that promote hatred and violence.

  Barack Obama

  Struggle, Home, Men

  "Beatings, Protests, Arrests Mark 60th Annual Human Rights Day". www.huffingtonpost.com. January 10, 2009.

• The trade agreement itself does have labor and environmental protections, but we have to stand for human rights and we have to make sure that violence isn't being perpetrated against workers who are just trying to organize for their rights.

  Barack Obama

  Rights, Agreement, Environmental

  "McCain, Obama go head to head in last debate". www.cnn.com. October 15, 2008.

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